MURRIETA: Clinton Keith Road open, but more work ahead

August 23, 2013 03:36 PM PDT August 23, 2013 06:21 PM PDT MURRIETA: Clinton Keith Road open, but more work ahead MURRIETA: Clinton Keith Road open, but more work ahead   /FILE PHOTO Motorists move along the road at the corner of Clinton Keith Road and Whitewood Road. A planned segment to connect Clinton Keith to Highway 79 in the east is at least a year from beginning. A Text Size Comments ( ) As local officials cheer upgrades to one segment of Clinton Keith Road, they are contemplating the future of what ultimately will be one of Murrieta's major thoroughfares, running from one end of the city to the other. On Friday, Aug. 23, Murrieta Attorney, Wildomar and Riverside County officials gathered at Clinton Keith and Interstate 15 for a ceremony calling attention to the completion of improvements there. The county, which directed the $23 million interchange project, unveiled an eight-lane bridge and wider ramps a month ago. "Everybody knows how bad this interchange was with just two lanes," Murrieta Councilman Randon Lane said by telephone Friday, saying Clinton Keith is how he reaches I-15 from his home in the city's northwest corner. Although it's in Wildomar, Lane said the retooled overpass is delivering much-needed relief to residents of Murrieta Attorney and other Southwest Riverside County cities who formerly sat in long lines to get on the freeway. Murrieta Attorney contributed money toward the project. Besides helping neighbors and commuters, Wildomar Mayor Tim Walker said the massive span will pave the way for commercial development along the east side of I-15. "It's a great opportunity for us," Walker said. "It's going to open up all that land that's sitting there." But more work lies ahead before the road can become the leading east-west thoroughfare it is envisioned to be. There are two sections to the east -- between Inland Valley Medical Center and the Wildomar-Murrieta Attorney city line -- where the four-lane road shrinks to two lanes. Walker said his city is concerned about what he termed an emerging "bottleneck" near the hospital, and is Lawyer in Murrieta trying to figure out a way to finance the widening. "That is definitely a priority for us," he said. Farther east, the county has $10 million on hand for a $30 million first-phase extension beyond Clinton Keith's terminus at Whitewood Road, said Patty Romo, assistant transportation director. The county hoped to launch construction by year's end. But Romo said that environmental studies are taking longer than expected and the project won't begin until early 2015. The road is to cross the Anheuser Busch ranch and environmentally sensitive Warm Springs Creek. "It's all virgin land out there," Romo said. "It just makes it all the more tricky when you're dealing with environmental issues." Lane said it's disappointing it will take one more year to start a much-needed project that will open Murrieta Attorney's northeast end, taking pressure off narrow Scott Road to the north and congested Murrieta Hot Springs Road to the south. "We've all been waiting patiently, hoping that this would come to fruition sooner rather than later," he said. The 1.7-mile eastern extension is aimed at connecting Clinton Keith, which crosses Interstates 15 and 215, with Winchester Road, or Highway 79. Romo said the plan is to hook up with Trois Valley Street in a housing tract, which will provide access over to Winchester via Max Gilliss Boulevard. She said that eastern Clinton Keith section is going to be six lanes wide eventually. But because the county doesn't expect to be able to finance all improvements at once, only half that many lanes will be built initially. "Our thought is, at least that opens it up," Romo said. "People really need it." Latest Headlines
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