New Express Lane Coming To East Bay Friday

DUBLIN, CA — A new Express Lane will open Friday morning on southbound I-680 and run roughly 10 miles from San Ramon Road and Alcosta Boulevard in Dublin to the intersection with State Route 84 in Sunol, Caltrans said.

No tolls will be charged until “the tolling system completes integration and testing,” Caltrans said, but did not provide an estimate of when that may be. Express lanes north of Alcosta Boulevard and south of SR-84 will continue to operate normally.

The new lane is one of several cropping up across the Bay Area ostensibly designed to improve traffic flow along the corridor, though many social media commenters criticized the move as a cash grab that will result in heavier traffic in the non-express lanes.

The new lane also comes at a time when I-680 southbound traffic flow is interrupted by regular closures of the El Cerro on-ramp in Danville. These closures are expected to continue intermittently until June.

To use the express lane, all vehicles must either have a FasTrak toll tag, or have three or more people and a FasTrek toll tag set to the 3+ position. Two-person carpools will be able to pay half -price tolls with a FasTrak Flex tag set to “2.”

Tolls can range from 50 cents to as high as $20, depending on traffic. See here for more information on rates.

Digital signs will tell drivers what the toll rates are. Drivers will always pay the toll displayed when they enter the Express Lane, even if rates change during their trip. The lanes on this stretch will feature four toll zones in each direction.
Express Lanes are currently operational in several spots, including:

• I-680 southbound from Concord to Dublin
• I-680 northbound from Dublin to Danville
• I-580 from Dublin to Livermore in both directions
• I-880 southbound from Oakland to San Jose
• I-880 northbound from San Jose to Castro Valley
• 101 from San Jose to South San Francisco in both directions

The Valley Transportation said it is currently working to convert existing carpool lanes on SR-85 and parts of the 101 in south San Jose, Mountain View, and Palo Alto into toll-based express lanes.

For more information about Bay Area Express Lanes and to sign up for FasTrak, visit 511.org/express-lanes.

SEE ALSO:

• Danville I-680 Ramp To Close Tuesday
• Bay Area To Get More Toll Lanes: What To Know