Concept of Mid-Valley Parkway has been changed

Public Record, The, Sep 02, 1994 by Hercules, Neil

PALM SPRINGS -- As the Coachella Valley Area Governments (CVAG) prepares for its first public hearing on the proposed new Mid-Valley Parkway in October, Robert Mohler, who is representing the lead agency in the project, says that the whole concept of the parkway has been changed.

Instead of a limited access, high speed six-lane expressway slicing across the Valley, it has become a more low profile arterial highway, with no cloverleafs -- me like another Ramon Road, Mohler told The Public Record.

This scaling down came about as a result of city officials representing cities along its path calling for something other than another I-10.

As a part of the scaling back, the project now is only covering the planning and route for the first phase--about six miles extending from Ramon Road to the corner of Gerald Ford Drive and Bob Hope Drive in Rancho Mirage.

The second, or perhaps the second and third phase, would be the seven-mile extension from Ramon Road to either Highway 111 or Indian Avenue a by-pass around a part of Palm Springs.

It is conceivable that this section of the road would utilize the existing Gene Autry Trail, which now has six lanes and center dividers, or it could follow the west bank of the White water Wash. Nothing may be done on this section of the arterial roadway until the year 2014 when there might even be a train using a portion of the right-of-way.

As the Mid-Valley Parkway has proceeded through the cities and CVAG. Mohler, said he could foresee that it would have its name changed -- Mid-Valley Parkway connoting a fast speed freeway.

Representatives of the various cities, felt however, that the name had become too firmly implanted into the residents' minds and they might not know what CVAG was talking about if they chose another name.

Cathedral City's officials have definitely nixed the Gerald Ford route for the parkway because it would cut right through the Cathedral Canyon Country Club condos and golf course areas.

Any thoughts early on, depending the parkway to Monterey Avenue along Dinah Shore, were dispelled by state and local officials who could forsee a monumental traffic jam at that busy corner already the home to HomeBase, PriceClub and HomeClub. Traffic across the Interstate 10 Freeway is already backing up from Lights an Monterey Avenue.

So, with the city officials more pliable to using their own city streets, the parkway will take a turn south at Bob Hope Drive and follow it to Gerald Ford Drive, which will be cut through to Monterey and thence east to Portola Avenue (the later already in place.)

Dinah Shore will remain as it is east of Date Palm Drive--a four lane street. Perhaps by the year 2,01O it will be widened to five lanes if the traffic count justifies the widening.

Currently, there is $32 million worth of MeasureA funds in the banks. They must be matched, at least in part, by the cities. If any one of the three cities, Palm Springs, Cathedral City or Rancho Mirage, fails to provide the matching funds, the project may be delayed further.

Once the final route is determined, some lands must be acquired, including some Indian land bordering the Whitewater Wash or in the event Mesquite Avenue was chosen as a portion of the route, some of the land from Crossley Road to the Wash.

Mohler said the valley cities are trying to avoid the mistakes made by the lack of planning in Phoenix, whose downtown deteriorated when no freeway was built to it for many years. Now at the cost of millions of dollars the downtown area and the airport have freeway access.

Planning is needed now in the valley before the traffic crisis arrives. Already, traffic during the season from the wash to Gene Autry Trail along Ramon Rd is the busiest in the valley with 41,000 cars per day, even busier than the intersection of Date Palm Drive and Highway 111 in Cathedral City. The I-10 Freeway has about 50,000 cars per day during the height of the season.

Mohler and the CVAG planners are looking ahead 16 years, to the year 2010, when the parkway may be extended north to intersect with the freeway.

But he said now is the time to make the right-of-way acquisitions and plan for future -- when it is possible that some form of rapid transit take care of trains.

Mohler, said much of the federal funding is being directed at alternative ways travel -- besides gag-powered cars.

Kimly-Horn Associates, Inc. of Orange is under contract with CVAG for four assignments: (1) The engineer's report (2) Traffic studies (3) Alignment Study and (4) the E.I.R.