Temescal Canyon Road Widening Project – Dawson Canyon and Dos Lagos Segments
Location
Temescal Canyon Road from Dawson Canyon Road to Dos Lagos Drive
City or County Responsible for Project
County of Riverside – Transportation Department
Category
Complete Streets Projects
Author
Catherine M. Wampler, P.E.
County of Riverside – Transportation Department
3525 14th St, Riverside, CA 92501
(951) 955-6803
Project Description
Temescal Valley, a mostly rural unincorporated area, is located on the west edge of the County of Riverside between the cities of Lake Elsinore and Corona, approximately 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles. Interstate 15 running through this narrow valley serves as a transportation corridor for regional commuter traffic originating from bedroom communities as far south as Temecula and traveling into workplaces in the Los Angeles area. The corridor had already seen an increase in regional traffic due to steady housing development over the past decades. The Riverside County Transportation Commission was addressing the regional growth with 91 freeway and I-15 express lane projects in Corona. However, the express lanes did not continue south of Corona through Temescal Valley. In 2015, upon completion of major widening to the state 91 freeway in Corona, traffic congestion improved on the 91 freeway, but unexpectedly created a bottlenecked on the unwidened portion of I-15 south of Corona. As a result, freeway commuters sought an alternative route to escape the congestion. Within the Temescal Valley, the only north-south corridor parallel to the I-15 freeway was Temescal Canyon Road -– a rural 2-lane road located immediately adjacent to the freeway, which had often served as an emergency bypass route. However, severe congestion on the freeway no longer just occurred during emergencies. Instead, severe congestion occurred every day. There was a chorus of complaints from local families in Temescal Valley that their morning trips to drop off children at school had turned into one-hour round trip commutes. In response, the County of Riverside’s Transportation Department immediately sought funding for congestion relief by widening Temescal Canyon Road from a 2-lane rural road to 4-lane Major Highway, as designated on the County’s General Plan. The Riverside County Transportation Commission and the Western Riverside Council of Governments came together to program $23 million in regional state and local transportation funding. The County of Riverside contributed another 4 million in local transportation funds. Project Description The County identified two segments of Temescal Canyon Road between Dos Lagos Drive and Dawson Canyon Road to widen. The widened length would total 1.3 miles and would expand the length of fully widened 4-lane highway along Temescal Canyon Road to a length of 3.6 miles. The project would additionally address the need for Complete Streets by adding sidewalk through the developed commercial and residential areas, and by adding marked on-street bike lanes for a full 2 miles. Transit stops would be added later along the corridor as the need for transit increased. The location of Temescal Canyon Road was historically recognized as a portion of the Butterfield Overland Mail route that carried mail by stagecoach from Missouri westward to California and up the California coast to San Francisco in the mid-1800s.
Temescal Canyon Rd – Award Nomination 01-29-2021 exhibits and photos r
