By Roya Aziz
Patterson Irrigator

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2005

Patterson commuters who carpool may have a smoother drive home in a few years. Bay Area transportation officials announced plans last week to add an 11-mile carpool lane on eastbound Interstate 580.

Construction on the lane, which will extend from Santa Rita Road near Pleasanton to the Greenville interchange in Livermore, is scheduled to begin in fall 2006.

Jean Hart, deputy planning director for the Alameda County Congestion Management Agency, said that that stretch of highway is one of the most congested corridors in the San Francisco Bay Area.

“This will provide incentives for carpooling as well as bustype services,” she said. “It should (also) relieve congestion in the general purpose lanes.”

The expansion will add a fifth lane and cost about $75 million in local, state and regional funding. The project was delayed by a year because of a state budget crisis, according to Hart.

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