Should Fresno highways have toll, carpool, truck-only lanes? See recommendations
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Fresno area has a plan if it decides to add toll lanes to highways in future.
- Phased proposal would add 25.1 miles of toll lanes on Highways 41, 180 and 168 by 2049.
- A separate study by Caltrans suggested converting lanes on Highway 99.
The best way to manage the growing traffic problem on Fresno-Clovis area’s urban highway system might be to add toll lanes — though it will not happen fast or on a cheap budget.
A new study presented Friday to the Fresno Council of Governments, the region’s transportation planning agency, found congestion has ramped up since the COVID pandemic. The study focused on highways 41, 180 and 168 and ranked the traffic-managing potential of various lane additions and conversions.
Adding an extra lane for drivers willing to pay a toll was the highest-ranking option on each highway.
“On all the freeways, adding a lane in the median would be feasible,” Chadi Chazbek of Kimley-Horn, the firm that conducted the study, said during Friday’s COG meeting.
The COG commissioned the $200,000 study in March 2025 to find solutions for the region’s increasing traffic congestion, which the agency says causes more pollution because highways fill up with vehicles.
The study was only a feasibility study and no formal plans to pursue the addition of lanes have been proposed. But should local officials on the COG board decide to start planning new lanes, the study lays out the path forward.
The phased plan would add 25.1 miles of toll lanes on highways 41, 180 and 168 at a cost of about $2.54 billion through 2049. The Fresno region would also need to decide how to operate its toll roads and which of its agencies would have tolling authority.
As for Highway 99, a Caltrans study published last year suggested the corridor should have some type of managed lane in each direction on the entire corridor between Kern County and Sacramento.
Although they are common in Southern California, toll lane operations are still a new concept in the San Joaquin Valley. Only the San Joaquin Council of Governments is currently pursuing this type of operation, according to the Kimley-Horn study.
Managed lane rankings in Fresno; Potential locations, costs, timelines
The study considered adding new managed lanes and also converting existing lanes to managed lanes. It ranked the options based on how many people and vehicles each can get through the various highway corridors, their pollution-reduction potential and more.
The numbers show converting lanes is the strategy that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But adding new carpool or toll lanes would get the most people and vehicles through corridors and would carry the lowest travel times. Added toll lanes scored higher than carpool lanes in terms of safety and maintenance funding possibilities— though it’s also the most expensive option.
The study suggests adding the toll lanes:
- On Highway 41 between California and Nees avenues by 2034 at the earliest. It could cost $789.9 million.
- On Highway 168 between Highway 180 and Herndon Avenue by 2041 earliest. It could cost $393.8 million.
- On Highway 180 between highways 41 and 168 by 2041 at the earliest. It could cost $158.6 million.
- On Highway 180 between Highway 41 and Marks Avenue by 2048 at the earliest. It could cost $762.9 million.
- On Highway 180 between Highway 168 and Fowler Avenue by 2048 at the earliest. It could cost $438.9 million.
Chazbek said that adding lanes in the area where highways 41, 180 and 168 connect would not directly relieve congestion there because the that traffic build-up is caused by drivers merging from ramps.
“But in an indirect way, it will shift some of the traffic ... into the carpool lane or the toll lane,” he said, “which may create more space for that merging activity to happen on the right side.”
The Caltrans study on Highway 99 recommended that corridor in the Fresno area instead convert one of its lanes to a managed lane in each direction.
