By Lynda Myer
As the fastest growing commercial airport in the U.S., Ontario International Airport (ONT) is placed in the heart of the San Bernardino Valley (California), and the passenger volume is expected to grow by 15 to 30 million annual passengers by 2040.
In order to develop transit solutions and decrease traffic congestion throughout the region, San Bernardino County Transportation Authority (SBCTA) has collaborated with ONT.
A subsurface transit connection between the Cucamonga Metrolink Station and ONT terminals, will be created by the tunnel to the Ontario International Airport Project, while the Cucamonga Station is the closest to ONT on the San Bernardino Line with the higher number of boardings in the Metrolink system.
The I-10, is the most used line by passengers departing from and arriving at ONT and it is parallel to the Metrolink San Bernardino Line from downtown Los Angeles to San Bernardino. Additionally, at the moment I-10 is the most used segment of freeway in San Bernardino County, which’s daily capacity is around 270,000 vehicles.
Operated and maintained by Omnitrans, the proposed Project would include a 6.76 km (4.2 miles) long single bi-directional tunnel directly connecting the Cucamonga Metrolink Station to ONT. Tunnel boring would occur up to 18.29 m (60 feet) below the ground surface.
While the entrance of autonomous electric vehicles, which are on an on-demand basis and developed under the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Fixed Guideway requirements, to the tunnel would be done via a ramp from the Cucamonga Metrolink Station located within the existing Metrolink station parking lot, at the airport, vehicles would emerge via ramps and drive to drop-off points near either Terminal 2 or Terminal 4. The current carry cycle is as: the electric vehicles would be classified and queued at their origin station and depart toward the destination station once boarded with passengers. Once the group of vehicles reaches the destination station and passengers deboard, new passengers would board, and the group of vehicles would return to its origin station. In order to pick up new passengers, if no new passengers are present empty vehicles would be returned to the origin station.
The proposed Project includes three at-grade passenger stations: one located in the northwest corner of the existing Cucamonga Metrolink Station parking; the other two at ONT within the existing parking lots located across from Terminals 2 and 4 and connecting to their associated tunnel portals along Terminal Way. A tunnel egress shaft would be located adjacent to I-10.
Virtual Public Meeting
A virtual public meeting for the proposed project was held by the SBCTA on 20 July 2022 and an informational presentation followed by the opportunity for participants to ask questions and submit comments to be included in the Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR), was its content. In order to watch the recording of that meeting please click here and also click here to view the presentation provided at the meeting. The determined deadline for a 30-day scoping comment period is 05/08/2022 and you can submit comments online here or write to:
SBCTA, attn Victor Lopez, San Bernardino.
– Email: info@goSBCTA.com
For further details visit this website.
