Wildomar Celebrating Clinton Keith Bridge Widening, Public Invited To Join

Wildomar is celebrating improved traffic flow on Clinton Keith Road at the 15 Freeway, and there will be a party of sorts to mark the work that made it possible.

Riverside County and the City of Wildomar will be hosting a ribbon cutting for the newly improved Interstate 15 / Clinton Keith Interchange on Friday, Aug. 23.

The ribbon cutting ceremony takes place at 8:30 a.m., just east of the freeway at 23905 Catt Rd., and the public is invited to join.

The interchange project brought safety enhancements and traffic improvements designed to greatly relieve congestion on the interchange and in Wildomar. Some of the improvements included widening of Clinton Keith Road, widening on and off ramps, adding meters and HOV lanes to ramp entrances, adding sidewalks on the overpass, improving traffic signal syncing, and increasing the number of lanes on the bridge.

The Clinton Keith Bridge is now 288 feet long and 122 feet wide -- roughly 74 feet wider than the original. The contractor, Griffith Company, began construction on the project in April 2012 and finished about 16½ months later. URS Corporation was the designer of the interchange.

The $23 million project was almost entirely funded through Transportation Uniform Mitigation Fee-Southwest Zone Funds, Southwest Area R&B Benefit District, DIF AP19 Major Improvement Funds, and the City of Murrieta, according to a statement from the County of Riverside Economic Development Agency.

The project was a joint collaboration between numerous agencies including: Riverside County Transportation, City of Wildomar, City of Murrieta, CalTrans, Western Riverside County Association of Governments, Federal Highway Administration, and Riverside County Transportation Commission.

Keynote speakers at the ribbon cutting will include: Wildomar Mayor Tim Walker, Wiildomar City Councilman Ben Benoit, Riverside County Transportation Land Management Director Juan Perez, Western Riverside Council of Governments Deputy District Director Ruthanne Taylor-Berger, Riverside County Transportation Commission Executive Director Anne Mayer, and Riverside County 1st District Supervisor Kevin Jeffries.

For more information regarding the grand opening contact Nathan Hultgren at (951) 955-3485. --Contributed content.