91 Express Lanes

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The 91 Express Lanes is a 10-mile, four-lane express toll-lane facility in the median of SR-91 in Southern California from the Riverside County Line east to SR-55 near Anaheim in Orange County. The facility consists of two lanes in each direction and is separated from five general purpose lanes in each direction by tubular markers. There are single points of access and egress on each end with no intermediate entrances or exits. Tolls on the facility vary by direction of travel, time of day, and day of week on a fixed schedule that is reviewed quarterly for possible adjustment. The 91 Express Lanes opened in December 1995 as one of four P3 demonstration projects approved by the State Legislature through California Assembly Bill 680 in 1989. The project was conceived and delivered using a design-build-finance-operate-maintain contract method. A private consortium, California Private Transportation Company (CPTC), financed and built the facility, transferred ownership to the state (Caltrans), and was to operate the lanes for 35 years. While CPTC maintained control over the tolls, the state contract capped the rate of return. The contract also included a non-compete clause that prohibited capacity improvements to the SR-91's general purpose lanes. Because of a dispute over the non-compete clause, the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) purchased the operating franchise for the 91 Express Lanes in January 2003 for $207.5 million. The purchase eliminated the clause and has permitted the recent general purpose lane expansion from four to five lanes in each direction. In 2014, the Riverside County Transportation Commission initiated a $1.3 billion project to extend the 91 Express Lanes into Riverside County by eight miles from the Orange County line to I-15. The extension is expected to open in January 2017.

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