(May 10) More than $10 million worth of improvements will be made to Yates Road to make way for the proposed new design of the Yucca Loma Bridge near the gateway into Apple Valley.
The cost of the project will be footed entirely by the county of San Bernardino and its transportation agency, with no financial participation by the town of Apple Valley in the construction.
This week the county board of supervisors on behalf of the county entered into a cooperative agreement with the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority and the town of Apple Valley in which the county, the authority and Apple Valley will contribute $1,867,635, $8,624,695 and $0, respectively, toward the $10,492,330 estimated cost to make the necessary road improvements along Yates Road, between Fortuna Lane and Park Road to accommodate the proposed new design of the Yucca Loma Bridge in the Apple Valley area.
According to Gerry Newcombe, the director of the county’s department of public works, “Yates Road will be widened from two lanes to four lanes from the westerly terminus of Yucca Loma Bridge (near Fortuna Lane) to Park Road, with the transition from four lanes to two lanes just west of Park Road. The Yates Road Project construction work consists of, but is not limited to, adding soundwalls, reconstructing the pavement, widening the roadway, striping, inverting a dirt median, installing a traffic signal at Park Road and placing embankment fill.”
The entire bridge project will cost $75 million, with more than $40 million of that coming from Measure I Funds, the countywide  sales tax override intended to provide funding for transportation improvements throughout the county.
According to documentation from the county, project design and environmental documents relating to the road improvements will run to $3,134,000. This cost will be principally financed by federal funding ($2,774,000). The local match portion of $360,000 will be funded  with $87,000 from the county and $210,000 from the town of Apple Valley and $63,000 from the city of Victorville.
The project, as part of the Yucca Loma Corridor project, is identified in the Victor Valley Subarea Major Local Highway Program Project List and the San Bernardino Associated Governments Authority Nexus Study.