San Berdoo officials: Come play on the freeway

San Berdoo officials: Come play on the freeway San Bernardino County transportation officials want residents and their children to come play on the freeway.
   Saturday's county-sponsored event, allowing people to walk, run or bike on the newest portion of the Foothill Freeway (Interstate 210) between Rialto and San Bernardino, is to celebrate the completion of the $1.1 billion project. Despite the party, coming nearly 10 years after the start of the project, county officials are holding off on inviting drivers to actually cruise the new seven-mile-long section. The best projection for eager commuters: start revving up around the end of the year.
   Workers, according to county officials, will continue to work to meet the deadline. Although 95 percent of the work is complete, including most of the paving, overhead signage and sound walls, a major 1 1/4-mile storm drain section is still under construction. Traffic signs along the shoulders as well as portions of the concrete median also need to be installed. Other ancillary projects, such as landscaping and installation of call boxes, will be completed after the stretch opens to commuters.
   The older 42-mile portion of the freeway located west of the connection with the Orange Freeway (CA-57) was completed in several stages from 1958 to 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.