BRIDGE WORK SET TO START ADDING LANES TO HIGHWAY 138 TO BEGIN IN EARLY 2006, END LATE 2007.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Widening work on Highway 138's twin bridges, the scene of fatal accidents, will begin early next year, transportation officials said Wednesday.

The project, which involves widening the highway from two to four lanes and replacing the twin bridges near 165th Street East with one 80-foot-wide bridge, is scheduled for completion in late 2007.

``In early 2006 we will start construction, after the rainy season,'' said Abdi Saghafi, a Caltrans senior engineer.

Bids for the project were opened last week by the state Transportation Department, with the lowest coming in at $14.6 million, roughly $700,000 under estimates.

An update on the project was given during a quarterly meeting convened by Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich and Lancaster Mayor Frank Roberts. Antonovich and Roberts are both members of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The twin bridges have been the site of a number of crashes, including one in 1995 that killed three people. In 2002, Caltrans agreed to pay $3 million to settle lawsuits brought by the families in that crash.

The area is the only stretch of highway for several miles in which drivers have no shoulder to drive onto in case an oncoming vehicle crosses the center line.

Caltrans officials said that an $8.8 million project to widen a section of Highway 138 between Longview Road and 146th Street East is on track for completion by spring 2006. That work is among a series of projects aimed at improving a route dubbed ``Blood Alley,'' a nickname Highway 138 got after a series of fatal crashes in the 1990s.

The current project will add two lanes, a median left-turn lane and shoulders from Longview Road in Pearblossom to 146th Street East.

Also in the works for Highway 138 is a European-style traffic roundabout at the confusing junction of Palmdale Boulevard and 47th Street East. Work on the $10 million project is scheduled to begin in 2007 and be completed in 2008.

In a roundabout, a driver yields to traffic already in the circle, makes a right turn to enter the circle and makes a right turn to exit. Roundabouts are designed so the traffic in the circle is traveling under 30 mph.

With traffic frequently backed up at the junction's five closely spaced intersections, Caltrans is looking to consolidate them into one and eliminate the 90-degree curve from Palmdale Boulevard onto 47th Street East.

Jim Skeen, [phone]

james.skeen(at)dailynews.com