Imagine a freshly paved eight-lane highway that cuts through virgin desert scrub, connecting distant exurbs to each other. Just another typical Southern California freeway, right? In some ways that does indeed describe what has been called the High Desert Corridor, a 53-mile route that would link the Antelope Valley to the Victor Valley in the east. But it also wouldn’t be entirely accurate. Along the way, solar or wind installations would generate power for streetlights and electric-vehicle charging stations. And the right of way would include something never seen before on local freeways: a bike path. It could even include room for high-speed rail. “This is the future and it’s more than a highway,” said Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford. “It is a total intermodal corridor.” But at a cost of $4 billion to $8 billion, is it all a desert mirage? Antelope Valley business and political leaders have lined up in support of the project, which took a step forward this month with the release of a massive draft environmental impact report. The idea is to build the corridor in phases, perhaps starting just four years from now, and completing it in a little over a decade. But the lead agency in charge of the project, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or Metro, still must select a route, secure funding and go through what could be a difficult environmental approval process. Still, the same demographics that led to the development of Southern California’s existing sprawling freeway system are at play in the High Desert. Currently, traffic between the Antelope Valley to Victorville travels on state routes 138 and 18. Those roadways, the environmental report points out, cannot handle current traffic flows let alone projected traffic in the years ahead. An analysis on traffic movement concluded that in 2040 without the High Desert Corridor, travel between Palmdale and Victorville would take more than two hours. With the corridor that travel time is reduced to 75 to 77 minutes. The population in the Antelope Valley areas to be served by the corridor, which includes Lancaster and Palmdale, is forecast to increase 50 percent by 2020 from its 2010 population of 344,188. Martin Wachs, a senior principal researcher at Rand Corp., the Santa Monica think tank, said a main benefit of the highway will be an improvement in travel times, particularly for goods movement. With traffic congestion expected to worsen with a growing population, he believes any additional road capacity is a wise investment. “This is trying to get ahead of the growth that will occur in the near future,” he said. It also might be the very last large highway built in Southern California, a region that has lost its appetite for such construction in areas closer to Los Angeles’ urban core. Denny Zane, executive director of MoveL.A., a transit advocacy group in Los Angeles, said there is simply little room in the country for a new freeway. In the heavily urbanized areas the only freeway project of note is filling in a gap on the 710 freeway near Pasadena. With the open space of the desert to build through, the north end of the county remains the last place a roadway the size of the High Desert Corridor can be built. “This is the only new freeway project that I am aware of,” Zane said. Lengthy history A bypass through the high desert around Los Angeles was proposed as far back as the 1930s. The idea, however, had been dormant for decades until population growth led to renewed interest in the past 20 years. The current project is an outgrowth of studies that started in the early 1990s, and led to the formation of the High Desert Corridor Joint Powers Authority in 2006. Four years later, Metro signed an agreement with CalTrans, various county and local governments, and public policy groups to begin starting the project. Among the options outlined in the environmental impact report are building a typical freeway from Avenue P-8 in Palmdale to Bear Valley Road near Apple Valley, and a combined freeway and tollway alternative using an electronic toll-collection system. Both options envision a railway on the center median. “There is going to be growth between the two valleys, so it is important to connect those two areas,” said Robert Machuca, Metro’s project manager for the High Desert Corridor. Business groups heavily support the project. Vicki Medina, executive director of the Antelope Valley Board of Trade, a business advocacy group in Lancaster, called transportation key to the valley’s economy. Not only will it shorten commutes for residents who travel across the Mojave Desert, but it will improve goods movement and attract new businesses, she said. “It opens up other doors,” Medina said. Among the biggest supporters is the city of Palmdale, which officials envision playing a key role as a transportation hub. “We are going to be a linchpin,” Leford, the mayor, said. For one, the city is along the route of the proposed $27.8 billion high-speed rail route connecting Burbank and Fresno. A station is planned at the Palmdale Transportation Center, which also serves Metrolink commuter trains. A potential rail line in the corridor would link high-speed and Metrolink train service with the proposed by XpressWest, a privately funded rail project through the Interstate 15 corridor to Las Vegas. XpressWest puts the cost of the project at about $7 billion but the U.S. Department of Transportation denied a loan to the company last year after a review determined the cost would be higher, putting the project in limbo. City officials also would like to revive commercial service at Palmdale Regional Airport, operated by Los Angeles World Airports. Airlines stopped service in 2008. The High Desert Corridor would run adjacent to the airport’s terminal. “I am excited about the hub that Palmdale has planned,” Medina said. However, Wachs at Rand Corp. is skeptical at least of the XpressWest plans. The denial for a federal loan lowers the chances of a successful project. “The probability that it will be built is low,” he said. Carving a path For Metro, a decision on the route alignment is expected by spring or summer of next year. The agency is taking public comments on the draft report through Dec. 2 and will host four public hearings on the report in November, including two in the Palmdale area. And then there is the financing. So far $45 million has been allocated from federal and state agencies and the environmental review. About $30 million will come from Measure R, the half-cent sales tax increase approved by voters in 2008 to fund transportation projects throughout the county, and the remaining $15 million from the state. Ledford said there is an expectation more funding will come from the state and county. But officials also are hoping to carve out some money for another transportation ballot measure being developed by Metro for 2016. It would either hike up the county sales tax to raise more than $100 billion or extend Measure R’s half-cent increase beyond 2039, when it will end unless further action is taken. But an initiative to extend Measure R in November 2012 failed to win voter support by a slim margin. Wachs, of Rand, said that he expects some funding for High Desert transportation in the final wording of the new sales tax measure, if only as a strategy to get it passed. “I am sure the geographic coverage of the county will be an important part of the strategy to pursue another measure,” he added. Finally, there are environmental questions. The corridor would cover at least 3,200 acres of land and that’s only if just the highway were built. Including the railway would of course widen it and take additional space. Included in the land are 252 acres of prime farmland and 2,900 acres of grazing land, potentially disturbing the habitats of threatened or endangered species, including the desert tortoise, golden eagle and Swainson’s hawk, according to the draft report. Also, scores of homes and businesses are in the way of the highway, which could result in opposition from both environmentalists and property owners. Proponents note, though, that the corridor would take diesel exhaust-spewing 18-wheelers off of congested roadways. And the project is being called a self-sustaining highway that would cut down on greenhouse gases. Photovoltaic solar panels placed at on- and off-ramps or mounted to sound walls would produce energy for streetlights and electric vehicle charging stations at rest stops and service areas, according to the report. Excess energy could power the grid. Wachs said the plan isn’t entirely new – it’s been proposed for other new highways in other states. But Machuca, the project manager, said Metro is taking the idea seriously. “What we are doing now is looking at what technologies are available,” he said.
Last Frontier?
