Last stretch of Foothill Freeway opens

Last stretch of Foothill Freeway opens    The newest portion of the Foothill (Interstate 210) Freeway, connecting Rialto and San Bernardino, opens today after nearly 10 years of work.
   Despite entrance barricades coming down, the $1.1 billion, seven-mile stretch of the highway is not 100 percent finished. Workers will continue to install emergency call boxes, mile markers, landscaping and signal controllers along the route over the next several weeks.
   The new stretch is the culmination of 50 years of effort to extend the western end of the I-210 to the once-remote areas of San Bernardino. The first 42-mile portion of the freeway, located west of the connection with the Orange (CA-57) Freeway, was completed in several stages between 1958 and 1981. The first six-mile portion of the newer 28.2-mile stretch east of CA-57 opened in 2001, followed by a 14-mile section a year later and a two-mile stretch that opened in 2005.
   Drivers will still not be able to travel non-stop between the western terminus in Sylmar and the Barstow (I-215) Freeway for several more years. Safety studies required for the construction of ramps connecting the new portion of the Foothill Freeway with I-215 will delay construction of the ramps until mid-2009 with a completion date set for sometime in mid- to late-2011.