Badlands Closed All Weekend: Full Westbound, Partial Eastboud

BEAUMONT, CA — The traffic nightmare has begun. A full westbound closure of State Route 60 between Moreno Valley and Beaumont and a partial eastbound closure started early Saturday and will continue until 8 p.m. Sunday, according to the Riverside County Transportation Commission and Caltrans.

The eastern end of the closure is at the Interstate 10/SR-60 interchange and the western end of the closure is at Gilman Springs Road, in a desolate area known as the Badlands.

According to the Riverside County Transportation Commission, the closures on the roughly 5-mile stretch will provide crews space to safely remove boulders from hillsides along the route.

"Crews will be removing large rocks from the hillside north of the roadway for the Riverside County Transportation Commission’s Route 60 Truck Lanes Project," the agency said. "The rocks could fall onto the roadway during excavation, so the lanes will be closed for the safety of motorists and crews operating machinery."

No westbound traffic will be able to use the closed of the freeway over a 40- hour span, according to RCTC. One lane on the eastbound side will be available, while one lane will be shut down, officials said.

Westbound travelers are encouraged to use Interstate 10 as a detour, but should expect significant delays.

The Badlands work is part of the $138 million State Route 60 Truck Lanes Project, overseen by Skanska USA, which got underway in May and is slated to continue until the end of 2021.

The project entails installing specially designated truck lanes for safety and to reduce congestion through the sparsely populated area, which is rife with steep hills and lacks freeway frontage roads.

A single collision on either side of the narrow four-lane segment has been known to tie up traffic for hours, forcing the California Highway Patrol to divert motorists back into Beaumont or Moreno Valley, depending on which way they're headed.

In addition to adding a truck lane on each side of the freeway, crews are flattening several of the most curvy road sections to improve motorists' visibility and widening freeway shoulders to 12 feet along the outside lanes, and 11 feet on the inside lanes, adjacent to the center divider, officials said.

The contract further calls for construction of 23 wildlife crossings beneath the corridor, as well as fencing on either side to prevent animals from straying into traffic.

The project is being funded through Measure A county sales taxes, as well as grants from state and federal sources, RCTC stated.

More information is available at rctc.org/60trucklanes .

— City News Service contributed to this report.