Riverside County transportation officials broke ground on its $1.3 billion project to widen the 91 Freeway as part of a move to ease congestion in the heavily traveled area. Adrian Arambulo reports for NBC4’s Today in LA on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013.
Traffic is a part of life when you live in Los Angeles, like it or not.
PHOTOS: Southern California Traffic Headaches
The Riverside County Transportation Commission and its project partners hope to ease traffic woes when they break ground Wednesday on a 91 Freeway widening project through Corona and Riverside.
Construction of the highway, which will come at a cost of $1.3 billion, will extend existing tolled express lanes on the 91 between the Orange/Riverside County line and the I-15. It would also add one general purpose lane between the SR-71 and the I-15, as well as from the 15 and 91 freeway interchange to Pierce Street.
Approximately, 280,000 people use the 91 Freeway daily. The afternoon rush on an 8-mile span of the construction zone was ranked the fifth worst in the country by the traffic-data firm Inrix.
Aside from easing traffic, the project is also expected to add over 16,000 jobs to the economy, of which over 4,500 are directly related to construction.
Full-time under-taking of the project will begin in a few weeks. Construction is expected to last four years.
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