Highway 58 Improvements at Tehachapi Coming Soon

Tehachapi city officials and other state and local dignitaries gathered at Broome Rd and Highway 58 this morning to announce the addition of lanes for 18 wheelers that slowly climb the mountain highway, backing traffic up as they slow down to make it up the grade. It’s called one of the oldest challenges to transportation in the area that has been overlooked for some time.

Construction of the additional lane will cover a three and a half mile stretch of roadway on the eastbound side of the freeway between Bakersfield and Tehachapi. The project finally received approval from state agencies for its part of the cost, 91 million dollars. The total cost according to Tehachapi officials is $257 million.

Some of the officials expected to be in attendance at today’s groundbreaking include Senator Shannon Grove, representatives from Assemblyman Vince Fong, Supervisor Zack Scrivner, Ahron Hakima Executive Director Kern Council of Governments, Tehachapi City Councilmembers Michael Davies, Joan Pogan-Cord, Phil Smith, Susan Wiggins, Jeannette Pauer, and Jay Schlosser engineer and SME.

-Tony Lee