California Department Of Transportation

It's the freeway controversy that just won't quit. The fight over whether to finish the 710 Freeway -- which stops just short of South Pasadena -- has been going on for more than half a century, with the records in a 1998 federal court case so voluminous that they filled some 500 cardboard file boxes.

Experimental tracking devices just installed in California Highway Patrol and Caltrans cars throughout Orange County are expected to reduce response times to traffic snarls, officials announced Wednesday. The CHP has rigged all its marked patrol units in Orange County with the electronic system, designed to help dispatchers determine which officers are closest to traffic problems. Eighteen Caltrans cars and trucks have also been equipped, officials said.

A Caltrans worker loading brush onto his truck was killed Friday afternoon when a GMC truck slammed into the back of his service vehicle, which was parked along the westbound side of the Artesia Freeway in Cerritos. Jerry Alcala, 39, of West Covina was pronounced dead at the scene at 1:50 p.m. Alcala, who was standing in the bed of the truck, was thrown into the air by the impact, and then crushed by the GMC truck, which overturned on him, CHP officials said.

The California Department of Transportation will hold a final public hearing today on the extension of California 126 through the Santa Clarita Valley. The meeting at the Santa Clarita City Council Chambers, 23920 Valencia Blvd., will be from 4 to 7 p.m. It will be the last public meeting on the matter before the California Transportation Commission makes a decision on the highway route.

Do you travel a route that's too well-worn a path? You and your vehicle don't have to simply brake, grin and bear it. The California Department of Transportation manages about 15,000 miles of highway and 24,000 bridges within the state highway system, which includes state routes, interstate highways or freeways and U.S. highways in California.

The California Transportation Commission has approved funding $295,000 for a park-and-ride lot near Palmdale, and $1.2 million for the widening of Pearblossom Highway through the town of Pearblossom. The construction of a 214-space lot near the junction of the Antelope Valley Freeway and Sierra Highway is expected to begin this fall and be completed by the end of the year. The city of Palmdale is contributing $55,000 toward the project. Work on the 1.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has dismissed criminal charges against BKK Corp. and two of its retired employees who were accused of conspiring with a South El Monte contractor to shortchange the state in the cleanup a Lynwood dump that was in the path of the Century Freeway. Judge Judith C. Chirlin ordered the contractor, Andrew Papac & Sons, owners Andrew Papac and his son, Andrew G. Papac, and their business associate, William Dunlap, to stand trial Oct.

County transit officials refused to give Caltrans $5.8 million it seeks to buy homes in the path of the Long Beach Freeway (Interstate 710) extension. The move by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board last week leaves the California Department of Transportation with about $1.1 million to buy houses along the route through Pasadena, South Pasadena and Los Angeles. "It ranked too low on our list of projects," said Stephen Finnegan, MTA program manager.

Caltrans officials will conduct a public hearing Wednesday on plans for high-speed rail service between Los Angeles and Bakersfield via routes that could crisscross the San Fernando Valley. The meeting will take place at the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum, 4700 Zoo Drive, Los Angeles, from 5 to 8 p.m.