Completion of Route 210 Freeway Scheduled for Late 2007

The route 210 extension was supposed to be opened by late 2005 when they started the construction, I can remember the signs originally, but now it is late 2007, and it is only now that I don't see much construction being done anywhere in Rialto, I guess is most of Rialto's is done, with the exception of the paving, and San Bernardino has the bridge work that they are working on now. I don't know if I want it there or not I guess I have to wait for it to open. I know it has created a whole bunch of heartaches for the Rialto Residents for the promises that the council has made and all the stuff that it has brought about with the Police Department and all.

BSRanch

Completion of Route 210 Freeway is scheduled for late 2007

By SHEL SEGAL

The long-awaited extension of the Route 210 Freeway is still on track for completion in late 2007 as planned, an official for the San Bernardino Association of Governments (SANBAG) said recently.

The freeway will ultimately connect with Highway 30 in San Bernardino, just east of Interstate 215, said Cheryl Donahue, public information officer for the association.

The final 7.2 miles starts at the freeway's present end at Alder Avenue in Rialto (just east of Fontana), and with a price tag of roughly $146.5 million, will complete a project that began in 1997 in La Verne, where the freeway used to end at Foothill Boulevard, Donahue said. The stretch from La Verne to Fontana was completed in 2001.

She added the final leg of the freeway will be opened at once, not in pieces, and that there is still much work to be done.

"We will be starting on the paving either late this summer or early this fall," Donahue said. "It's fascinating. It's done with computers and is guided so it spreads out evenly. We can pave two lanes at once. We break it up into segments and the paving is done in three separate layers."

The bottom layer of the freeway will be a concrete base, the second layer will have a thin layer of asphalt mixed with concrete, and that will be topped off with 9- to 12-inch thick layer of Portland cement, Donahue said.

"That will take some time to do the paving," Donahue said. "We'll go through then and pave the on and off ramps, and we have bridges to finish up."

The bridges include one at Highland Avenue, one at Pepper Avenue, one at California Street and a Highland Avenue undercrossing in San Bernardino, Donahue said.

She added a couple of railroads need to be retrofitted while a massive drain system beneath State Street in San Bernardino needs to be built.

This is in addition to all the signs and lights that need to be put up, Donahue said.

Also, each direction will have three lanes and a carpool lane for a total of eight lanes being built along the 7.2-mile stretch, Donahue said.

(The photo above is an aerial view of some of the construction taking place on the Route 210 Freeway. Photo by Shel Segal.)