I-580 Corridor Improvements

About the I-580 Corridor Improvements Projects

I-580 is the main east-west interregional freeway connecting the Bay Area and the Central Valley. I-580 also serves as a major transportation corridor serving the commute between the growing Central Valley (Tracy, Stockton, the I-5 Corridor) and the Bay Area. Additionally, I-580 is a major route for the movement of goods and freight into and out of the region, as well as significant recreational travel throughout the year. I-580 is classified as a “Lifeline Route,” facilitating movement between major staging areas and impacted areas following major earthquakes and is the main access to the Homeland Security Organization at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

In recent years, both the Livermore and Central Valley regions have experienced significant growth, both in terms of new housing and major freight warehousing and distribution facilities. More than 200,000 vehicles, including 12,000 trucks carrying goods to and from the Central Valley, use I-580 every day, and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission projects a 90 percent increase in traffic by the year 2030.

Currently, I-580 experiences more than 12,000 daily vehicle hours of delay -- no highway in Northern California has greater congestion both eastbound and westbound, according to MTC’s regional congestion report of June 2008. This congestion has additional spillover impact on local communities as motorists seek to bypass the congested interstate. Through the approval of a local sales tax measure, increased tolls, highway bonds, and editorial opinion, the public has expressed a strong desire to implement improvements to the corridor.

The Alameda County Congestion Management Agency (ACCMA), in cooperation with Caltrans is sponsoring the construction of High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes on I-580 both Eastbouind and Westbound. The new eastbound lane will go from Hacienda Road to the Greenville over-crossing. The new westbound lane will go from the Greenville over-crossing to Foothill Boulevard.

The first stages of I-580 corridor improvements already are in place:

I-580 TMP/TOS/ITS Advance Elements Project, which was finished in 2008, brought Traffic Monitoring devices along I-580, I-680, SR84 and local Arterials.

I-580 Springtown-Sound Wall, which was completed in 2007, constructed a sound wall on the north side of I-580 between Vasco Road and Springtown Blvd

Construction of Eastbound HOV lane, known as the I-580 Eastbound HOV Lane Project, began in September 2008.

Project Need

I-580 eastbound and westbound in the Livermore Valley are the 2nd and 3rd most congested freeways in the Bay Region.

Trucks account for approximately 12 percent of peak hour traffic volume over the project corridor.

Most of the accidents in the corridor are associated with congested conditions; e.g, stopped vehicles (29%), slowing or stopping vehicles (23.5 %), with 60.3 % involving rear end accidents and 37% occurring during the afternoon peak period.

Caltrans traffic projections indicate an increase of 43 percent in the average daily traffic, for both directions of I-580 in 2025.

MTC travel projections show that commutes to and from the Bay Area will nearly double over the next 20 years, with the largest increases coming from the Central Valley via San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Merced counties.

Existing features of I-580 do not meet current design standards; e.g. narrow inside and outside shoulder widths; unpaved median.

Proposed improvements on I-580 will reduce congestion, improve safety, improve the environment, and promote economic growth.

overview map

Go to Project Page >>