CA-14/CA-178 construction

[pderocco]

Apparently, there was a ribbon cutting ceremony a week or two back, celebration the completion of the first phase of the Freeman Gulch widening project on CA-14 around its multiplex with CA-178. But it's definitely not "finished".

I just drove up CA-14 through Inyokern, and report that it is coming along nicely. Through the multiplex it looks like they've built the new alignment east of the old one, and all the traffic has been moved over onto it, I guess so they can upgrade the old alignment. So that'll be five or six fewer miles of peering around a tractor-trailer to see if it's safe to pass. But I don't know how long it will be before traffic is actually using all four lanes.

No sign of anything going on south of there, though.

[sparker]

Apparently, there was a ribbon cutting ceremony a week or two back, celebration the completion of the first phase of the Freeman Gulch widening project on CA-14 around its multiplex with CA-178. But it's definitely not "finished".

I just drove up CA-14 through Inyokern, and report that it is coming along nicely. Through the multiplex it looks like they've built the new alignment east of the old one, and all the traffic has been moved over onto it, I guess so they can upgrade the old alignment. So that'll be five or six fewer miles of peering around a tractor-trailer to see if it's safe to pass. But I don't know how long it will be before traffic is actually using all four lanes.

No sign of anything going on south of there, though.

According to the info in the most recent STIP, most of the activity in this region is happening farther north in Inyo County along US 395 as part of the effort to 4-lane the entire segment up to at least Bishop.  Since CA 14 is the major feeder to that corridor (traffic volumes outstrip US 395 south of the junction), it would be expected that sooner or later it would be slated for full completion as at least a 4-lane facility. 

[pderocco]

According to the info in the most recent STIP, most of the activity in this region is happening farther north in Inyo County along US 395 as part of the effort to 4-lane the entire segment up to at least Bishop.  Since CA 14 is the major feeder to that corridor (traffic volumes outstrip US 395 south of the junction), it would be expected that sooner or later it would be slated for full completion as at least a 4-lane facility.

In Inyo County, the only 2-lane stretch of US-395 is through Olancha and Cartago, and that bypass isn't even supposed to break ground for another three years. Beyond that, it's four lanes all the way to Lee Vining. The current construction is along CA-14 from about latitude 35.59 up to the existing four-lane section at 35.66. The rest of the CA-14 widening south of there is scheduled to happen concurrently with the Olancha/Cartago bypass.