Series of overnight closures begin as 71/91 Freeway interchange construction gets underway

A series of overnight closures on the westbound 91 Freeway start Monday night and will last all the way through late-January, creating what will inevitably be a traffic nightmare for drivers in coming weeks. 

SR-91 will be closed between SR-71 and Green River Road each Monday through Wednesday evening until Jan. 22 of next year,  as a part of the 71/91 Interchange Project, according to Riverside County Transportation Commission officials. 

The closures are to allow construction crews the time and open space to "remove more than 40 beams of support structures that span above the westbound 91 lanes," RCTC said in a statement. 

An identical operation happened on eastbound lanes of the freeway in June. 

The completion of the project will replace the single-lane loop connector between the SR-91 and SR-71 Freeways with a two-lane, direct connector ramp, officials said. 

The project will temporarily switch to an alternate schedule due to the coming holidays and is subject to change if weather does not permit work to be completed. 

The full list of closures, without taking potential changes into effect, is as follows:

• westbound lanes of SR-91 from SR-71 to Green River Road fully-closed between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. Monday through Wednesday every week,
• westbound SR-91 Express Lanes closed between I-15 and the Orange County/Riverside County Line between 8 p.m. and 4 a.m. Monday through Wednesday every week,
• southbound lanes of SR-71 to the westbound SR-91 connector will be fully closed from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Monday through Wednesday every week,
• southbound lanes of I-15 connector road to the westbound SR-91 Express Lanes will be fully closed between 8 p.m. and 4 a.m. Monday through Wednesday every week,
• northbound lanes of I-15 connector road to the westbound SR-91 Express Lanes will be fully closed between 8 p.m. and 4 a.m. Monday through Wednesday every week,
• westbound lanes of SR-91 at the Green River Road off-ramp will be closed from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. every Monday through Wednesday.

Drivers are urged to use alternate routes to fully avoid the closures and traffic impact. Other routes include the northbound SR-71, westbound SR-60 and southbound SR-57. 

This is the second major freeway that will be impacted by overnight closures due to construction, with parts of I-605 undergoing a rehabilitation project in Los Angeles County.