Update on CalTrans District 9 (Sierra Nevada East Side) DC Fast Charger Program

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paulgipe

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 2, 2014
Messages
428
Location
Bakersfield, CA 93305
Proposition 6, the measure to roll back an increase in gasoline taxes, failed in California's midterm election. Projects that depended upon the tax increase, such as CalTrans' 30-30 program, will now have their funding stream restored.

CalTrans 30-30 program was proposed by the Jerry Brown administration to install at least 30 DC fast-charge stations across California, often at roadside rest stops.

Development of the stations has been delayed by Proposition 6. If Proposition 6 had passed, the stations would not be funded.

Caltrans' District 9 serves the East Side of the Sierra Nevada. Currently there are no non-Tesla charge stations--neither DCFC nor Level 2 stations--on US 395 from Gardnerville, Nevada to Mojave, California, a distance of 330 miles.

East_Side_Charging_Desert-600x400.jpg


The resumption of funding for the program will be voted on in mid-March 2019 by the California Transportation Commission. Once the decision is made to resume the program, each project will be sent out to bid. Construction on the East Side is not expected before late summer 2019. Operation of the stations is unlikely to begin before year end.

In its first report to California's Air Resources Board, Electrify America proposed at least three DCFC stations on US 395. There's no word on whether those stations are still part of Electrify America's plans or, if they are, when they might be installed.
 
X-posted on related topics:
EA is building a QC site at the Von's in Bishop. It's a bit far (0.6 miles) in typical Bishop summer temps to walk to Schat's Bakery or the White Mtn. Ranger District office, but it should make trips up the east side a lot easier. Other EA QCs are being built in Bakersfield, Barstow and Hesperia, so access to 395 from teh south should be much improved, although at least a couple more ON 395 are needed.
 
CalTrans' DCFC Stations on the East Side Not Yet Out to Bid--EA's Under Construction

While funding for CalTrans' District 9 DC Fast Charge stations under the state's 30-30 program has been approved, the stations have yet to go out for bid. Bids likely will be released in July 2019 with construction to begin in the fall. CalTrans' objective is to have the stations in the ground by the end of the year. However, it is more likely that they won't be in service until the first quarter of 2020.

District 9 encompasses US Hwy 395 on the East Side of California's Sierra Nevada. The highway serves heavy summer recreational traffic to national forests and Yosemite National Park. It also serves heavy winter traffic to the ski resort of Mammoth Mountain north of Bishop, California.

CalTrans planned DCFC stations at the Coso Junction and Division Creek rest areas and the district office in Bishop.

There are currently no non-Tesla DCFC stations on the East Side.

There are J1772 and Tesla destination charge stations in Mammoth at the resort's hotels.

Meanwhile Electrify America has stations under construction at Coso Junction and in Bishop. The Eastern Sierra Electric Vehicle Association's Don Condon is also reporting EA equipment on the ground in Bridgeport. According to photos on PlugShare, the Coso Junction station is quite advanced with EA's kiosks in the ground. It's likely that EA will have its stations operational before those of CalTrans.

In addition, ChargePoint has a station planned for Robber's Roost on Hwy 14 in Inyokern as part of the CEC's GFO-15-603 for Interregional Corridors. As part of the same program EV Connect has stations planned for Mojave and Inyokern. As of two weeks ago there was no sign of activity in Mojave.

These stations are necessary to make non-Tesla EV travel on US 395 and the East Side possible.

Paul
 
CalTrans District 9 DCFC Stations Underway on East Side

CalTrans' District 9 has confirmed that construction on the first of four DC Fast Charge station locations has begun. District 9 serves the East Side of California's Sierra Nevada, including Hwy 395 and Hwy 58 in Mono, Inyo, and the eastern part of Kern County.

Construction began 6 January 2020 at the Boron rest stop on Hwy 58. Construction has yet to begin at CalTrans' Division Creek and Coso Junction rest areas on Hwy 395, nor has construction begun on the station at CalTrans' District 9 office in Bishop, California.

CalTrans' Coso Junction rest area is near the Electrify America station. Two stations with a total of five charging kiosks will provide redundancy at an important waypoint on the route to Mammoth Lakes ski area and Yosemite National Park from Southern California.

Completion is expected by June 2020. The DCFC dispensers have been ordered and the local utility company has been notified.

Unlike the recently installed stations at the Camp Roberts rest area on Hwy 101 in the Salinas Valley, CalTrans' District 9 kiosks will be supplied with three-phase power. The Camp Roberts' stations rely on solar PV, batteries, and a single-phase supply. They are often unavailable for a lack of power.

Ten years after the introduction of the Nissan Leaf, a state-wide, non-Tesla DC fast charging network is nearing fruition. There remain regions of California that are not served or are only lightly served by DC fast charging stations for non-Tesla vehicles. The East Side of the Sierra Nevada is one of those.

EA's Bishop station is now online. However, neither EA station at Coso Junction nor Mojave are operational. They have stood idle for more than six months since installation.

Construction has yet to fully begin on ChargePoint's stations in Tehachapi, Mojave, and Brady (Inyokern). There's been no word on EV Connect's state-contracted stations in Mojave or Inyokern.

The long wait for stations on the East Side will continue into the summer months.
 
Really good info! Thank you

I didn't even know about any of these except for EA.

Chargers in inyokern and / robbers roost would be nice and redundancy in mojave and coso junction and bishop sounds even better.

I'm curious what the price and charge rates are. I never saw these listed in plugshare as coming.

Thanks Paul!
 
danrjones said:
Really good info! Thank you

I didn't even know about any of these except for EA.

Chargers in inyokern and / robbers roost would be nice and redundancy in mojave and coso junction and bishop sounds even better.

I'm curious what the price and charge rates are. I never saw these listed in plugshare as coming.

Thanks Paul!

Dan,

Check my previous posts on this topic, either on this site or on my web site. I list the ones that the CEC has funded as well as the ones CalTrans was committed to building. CEC staff said that the Inyokern, Brady, and Mojave stations are not promised until June of this year. I've heard of no activity out there on these sites by either CP or EV Connect. Could you keep an eye on them and keep us posted. Inyokern is at the airport. Brady's is at the Mobil station. Mojave is at the Denny's or nearby. Locations could have moved.

Future station construction will probably be even harder to follow as the CEC is outsourcing the contracting to the counties.

See https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1VEJLK0-wcAhWV8Q0MirTLULd5mg&ll=35.92250683332374%2C-120.46900399764502&z=9

BTW. Guy Hall contacted me about starting an Electric Vehicle Association chapter in Kern County. I declined--have my hands full. But if other drivers are interested I am glad to help.

Paul
 
I certainly will keep an eye open on these sites. I've been watching the two EA sites in Mojave and Coso junction (as you have too) and nothing much changing there. I took photos of Mojave EA quite some time ago and added them to plugshare. I'll do the same for these when there is something to share.

I'll read back through all your notes. I'm curious to see what a Caltrans site looks like. It sounds like a single unit with two plug heads to cover both adapters.

June is right around the corner.

As to the association I'm not sure. I had been toying with the idea of starting a Facebook group for our area, something like IWV EVs. I tried to guage interest on one of the local pages and got little reply. Though at work I'm seeing more and more teslas in the parking lot.

Thanks!
 
FWIW, the most recent check-in (Jan. 13th) at EA Coso Junction says an EA rep claimed the holdup is due to state permitting, and EA is ready to go. No way to confirm the accuracy of that.
 
GRA said:
FWIW, the most recent check-in (Jan. 13th) at EA Coso Junction says an EA rep claimed the holdup is due to state permitting, and EA is ready to go. No way to confirm the accuracy of that.

I saw that. All I know is that the Mojave station hasn't changed since I took photos quite some time ago. Those photos are on plug-share.

I was going to stop on my way home from skiing a week ago at the coso junction stop, but it was mostly dark, so I didn't bother.

I'll try and go by Brady's, the Inyokern airport (an odd spot though, near the TESLA location and the burger place would be better) and such as I venture those ways. Was Robber's roost on the list, or just Brady's?

I came up with this list for around me, please correct any I got wrong. So if I compiled this list correctly we will have three separate fast chargers in Mojave, plus 2 level 2 charge points as well? If only we had that everywhere!
----------------------------------------------
BISHOP (EA 1 50 kW CHADEMO / 4 CCS <= 350kW)
MOJAVE (EA 1 50 kW CHAdeMO / 4 CCS <= 350kW) <-- Just marked as open

COSO JUNCTION (EA 1 50 kW CHAdeMO / 4 CCS <= 350kW)*

COSO JUNCTION (CALTRANS 1 50 kW CHAdeMO/CCS)*
DIVISION CREEK (CALTRANS 1 50 kW CHAdeMO/CCS)*
BISHOP (CALTRANS 1 50 kW CHAdeMO/CCS)*

TEHACHAPI (CP 1 50 kW CHAdeMO/CCS)*
MOJAVE (CP 1 50 kW CHAdeMO/CCS)*
BRADY'S (CP 1 50 kW CHAdeMO/CCS)*

MOJAVE (EVC 1 50 kW CHAdeMO/CCS)*
INYOKERN (EVC 1 50 kW CHAdeMO/CCS)*
 
Dan,

Those look right.

Robber's Roost was moved to Brady's. That was always an odd site--truly in the middle of nowhere.

CP just opened one of their CEC-funded stations--a single kiosk--at Frazier Park. The Mojave and Brady's are also a CEC contract.

Paul
 
Ok, thanks.

I did find something somewhere that the CEC contracts were "stop worked" for charge point last September for 601 and 603 due to lack of performance but maybe that's now fixed?

https://electricrevs.com/2019/09/08/ca-issued-stop-work-orders-against-recargo-on-22-state-funded-charging-sites/
 
On the way back from Mammoth yesterday I did a loop through Division Creek rest stop north of Independence. I saw no sign of any construction yet. Nada. Nice rest stop though.

I was going to also swing through the coso rest stop and also the EA chargers there but it got dark before I got there. I'll check those out another time along with Brady's and the Airport site. I kind of wish they had chosen in Inyokern proper instead of Brady's. I get that its a perfect location geographically at the nexus of 14 and 395 but there is nothing to do there. Putting it in inyokern proper next to the TESLA charger would have been better. Food there including the burger place. Airport also is a bit far to walk. TESLA did it right.

The rest stops though, I like that idea. Walk the dog, bathroom break, et, and gets a charger between cities if you need it.
 
danrjones said:
Ok, thanks.

I did find something somewhere that the CEC contracts were "stop worked" for charge point last September for 601 and 603 due to lack of performance but maybe that's now fixed?

https://electricrevs.com/2019/09/08/ca-issued-stop-work-orders-against-recargo-on-22-state-funded-charging-sites/

Dan, that was Recargo and not ChargePoint. I haven't heard of CP getting any stop work orders--but they don't all me if they did. ;)

Paul
 
Update from Caltrans
I did not see any signs of construction myself though at division creek.

:

Yes, Caltrans is in the process of installing zero-emission vehicle chargers here in District 9. Construction on five, level 3, DC, fast-charging stations is currently in progress on SR 58 and U.S. Hwy 395 in Eastern Kern and Inyo counties.



The new ZEV charging station locations under construction are:

In Kern County on State Route 58
The eastbound Boron Safety Roadside Rest Area
The westbound Boron Safety Roadside Rest Area
In Inyo County on U.S. Hwy 395
Coso Junction Safety Roadside Rest Area
Division Creek Safety Roadside Rest Area
The Caltrans District 9 Office in Bishop, public parking area


Genuine Engineering, Inc., a contractor from Corona, California, was awarded the project. Construction is anticipated to be completed by June 2020.



Hope this helps,
 
Since Caltrans is still saying June I went ahead and added to plugshare as coming soon for the five. Credit really should go to Paul. I also reached out to Genuine Engineering to see if they would comment or provide an update. Hopefully will get a responce.

I debated adding the five to plugshare but this way more eyes can watch the sites.
 
Thanks Dan. Much appreciated.

70 have signed up at the Sierra Club breakfast this am for my talk on Driving Electric. The most they've ever seen at a breakfast meeting--by far. ;)

Paul
 
I did get a response from Genuine Engineering:

"This project is currently in construction. The charging stations will be installed by others at a later date.

Thank you,

Genuine"


A bit cryptic?

I can only guess that they are installing some of the infrastructure and someone else will put in the charger, at a "later date"?

Not exactly what I was hoping to hear... Nor have I actually seen any sign the project at those sites is under construction.
 
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