It will cost $3.50 with a transponder for a car to go the 16km (10 mile) length of the South Bay Expressway (SBX) in the east of San Diego when it opens this summer. There's a 25c premium for paying cash.

Per-mile rates are to slightly higher than this 35c/mile (22c/km) for shorter distances. For example a half length of the tollroad between CA54 and East H Streets costs $2.00 with a FasTrak transponder (the California interoperable tag) and $2.50 cash for 5 miles.

Three and four axle vehicles will pay twice the car toll rates and 5 axle tractor-trailers three times.

There are some wildly different cash premiums 25c only for the length of the road, 50c for the northern half and 75c for the southern half, according to the Toll Wizard on the SBX website.

see http://www.southbayexpressway.com/tollwiz/index.php

BACKGROUND

The South Bay Expressway is a 16km (10mi) tollroad running north-south across the eastern fringe of the San Diego metro area (population 2.81m in 2000).

Known previously as State Route 125 (CA125) South it connects the CA125 freeway in the Spring Valley/Lemon Grove area to the various east-west arterials of Chula Visa and to the border strip along CA905 or Otay Mesa Rd, and the Otay Mesa border crossing into Tijuana Mexico.

The project was concessioned in 1991 (that's not a typo) to California Transportation Ventures, a group led by Parsons Brinckerhoff. 12 years of permitting, alternatives arguments, route selection, litigation and land acquisition followed. The project and CTV were sold to Macquarie when it came to doing a financial close and the construction work, which has been heavily delayed.

The road is 2x2 lanes but provides for widening to 2x4 lanes and has seven interchanges with provision for two more

The project involves major earthmoving since it transits an area where the predominant ridge lines run east-west. There is a major high level bridge over the Otay Mesa River - a tiny stream by anything but California/Nevada standards. The high level of the bridge (55m or 180ft) and its length of 1200m (0.75mi) was required by the state to keep grades down in case of a trolley line being run in the median of the expressway at some future time!

Total project cost is reported at $635m.

TOLLROADSnews 2007-02-07