BELATED CAR-POOL LANE CONSTRUCTION GROUNDBREAKING HELD 6.2 MILES BEING ADDED TO 14 FREEWAY.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Antelope Valley Freeway car-pool lanes under construction south of Palmdale are expected to be ready for traffic in two years, officials said Friday at a belated groundbreaking ceremony.

Coming two years later than originally planned because of state budget problems, the $41 million project will add a lane in each direction for 6.2 miles and relieve a traffic bottleneck at the Pearblossom Highway interchange.

``Thank goodness we're finally getting it done. We had the darnedest time with the money,'' said Lancaster Mayor Frank Roberts, who is chairman of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority that helped fund the work.

Construction actually started in March on the project, which will add a high-occupancy vehicle lane in each direction from Avenue P-8 in Palmdale to Mountain Springs Road, where the existing car-pool lanes end just south of the Pearblossom Highway interchange.

Completion is scheduled for spring 2007, officials said.

When the lanes are completed, motorists will be able to travel 35.9 miles of car-pool lanes from Palmdale to the Interstate 5 interchange south of Santa Clarita. The lane construction started in 1996 in Canyon Country.

Interstate 5 is getting its own car-pool lanes, expected to be finished in summer 2007, in a $42 million project that will add another 6.2 miles south from the Antelope Valley Freeway interchange to the Simi Valley Freeway.

The Antelope Valley Freeway widening was originally expected to start in 2003 at a cost of less than $32 million.

But in 2003, the project was among some 140 dropped in a budget-cutting move from a preliminary version of the MTA's short-range transportation plan.

The MTA board reinstated the car-pool lanes in the final version of the plan, but state transportation officials then twice turned down a proposal to finance the work with bonds.

MTA leaders last year financed the work by shifting away money earmarked for other highway projects that weren't ready for construction.

The Antelope Valley Freeway's last new section of car-pool lanes was completed between Escondido Canyon Road and Pearblossom Highway, a distance of 10.5 miles, in 2002. That work lasted two years and cost $32.9 million, officials said.

Roberts and Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford said they want a further extension of the car-pool lanes to Avenue L, bringing them into Lancaster.

``We know our transportation needs in the region will need that lane to Avenue L,'' Ledford said at Friday's ceremony, conducted in a Palmdale cul-de-sac with the freeway visible across vacant fields.

Car-pool lanes are on 380 miles of Los Angeles County freeways and are planned on 70 more within five years. Officials say they encourage motorists to stop driving alone and also provide express lanes for public buses.

``All of the users will be able to benefit from the reduced congestion,'' Caltrans District 7 Director Doug Failing said. ``It's very important we do everything we can to meet the needs of this exploding population.''

On the Antelope Valley Freeway, the car-pool lanes are open to motorists driving alone outside rush hours, under legislation authored by state Sen. George Runner, R-Lancaster, when he was an assemblyman.

Charles F. Bostwick, [phone]

chuck.bostwick(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, map

Photo:

(1 -- color) Construction of 6.2 miles of car-pool lanes from Avenue P-8 in Palmdale to Mountain Springs Road is under way, with completion scheduled for spring 2007.

(2 -- ran in AV edition only) Caltrans District 7 Director Doug Failing talks Friday about new A.V. Freeway car-pool lanes under construction.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer

Map:

(ran in AV edition only) 6.2 miles carpool lanes