Construction on the San Bernardino Interstate 10 (I-10) eastbound freeway off-ramp on Kellogg Drive is set to finish April 30, reopening the freeway exit after it was closed by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) on Jan. 15 for pavement rehabilitation.
Initially, construction was scheduled to be completed by April 23. For Cal Poly Pomona’s campus community, this ramp, located on the northeastern quadrant of campus, serves as a direct entryway onto the campus grounds from westward areas.
Caltrans District 7 Public Information Officer Jim Medina shared that the Kellogg Drive off-ramp’s reconstruction was begun due to weathering and cracks. “The pavement was cracked and needed to be replaced. The reconstruction was done to enhance the safety of the road,” Medina said.
Its reopening will allow campus travelers to save on commute time and avoid the process of finding alternate routes to campus.
The exit reconstruction is also a part of the larger San Bernardino I-10 High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) Lane Project.
According to the Caltrans I-10 HOV webpage, “The I-10 HOV project will increase the 557-mile carpool lane system in Los Angeles County, add freeway capacity, reduce congestion by encouraging carpooling, improve traffic flow, and reduce energy consumption, thereby improving air quality.”
“There’s going to be HOV lanes in each direction on the I-10 corridor between Interstate 605 and State Route 57 (SR-57),” Medina said. “Each segment was started at a different time. Segment 3, between Citrus Street and SR-57, began in 2016. It’s scheduled to be completed by next year’s summer.”
With the Kellogg Drive off-ramp closure, campus commuters were subject to use exits Temple Avenue from SR-57 and Valley Boulevard from the South 71 freeway throughout the spring semester.
Students plan to return to their normal commutes when COVID-19 protocols are lifted, and they can also return to in-person coursework.
“I think this reopening will allow people to avoid the streets and cause traffic jams,” said fourth-year mechanical engineering student Andrew Villa. “They will directly get off and be on campus sooner. So, I feel it’ll allow people to get to school faster and safer.”
Second-year urban and regional planning student Alejandro De Loera described his daily drives to the traffic-riddled campus brought on by student and faculty pileup as “jam-packed.”
“It will be a significant improvement for the daily drive of every commuter coming from the West,” said De Loera. “I had to go around campus, and on the first day of school it took me an extra 45 minutes to get to school because I needed to go from the Kellogg ramp to the (SR-57) and it was jam-packed. I took the streets the rest of the semester.”
When asked if traffic or coronavirus protocol affected the completion of this exit, Medina answered, “The project continued because there’s a lot of work done behind barriers. The traffic didn’t play a role in that … workers are just using COVID-19 protocols and being cautious of their work.”
Despite the ramp’s opening, the campus remains closed through the remainder of the spring semester as a result of the university’s move to virtual instruction and the state government’s safe-at-home protocols aimed at halting the spread of COVID-19. An official return to in-person curriculum is yet to be determined.
For more information about freeway construction and the latest road constraints, visit http://quickmap.dot.ca.gov.
