Tehachapi News

Movin' dirt for Love's Travel Stop

larger view larger view larger view larger view larger view

Heavy equipment is changing the lay of the land on 11.21 acres of Tehachapi Valley floor as construction of the new Love's Travel Stop and Country Store starts.

Construction should be completed in the first quarter of 2010, company spokesperson Christina Dukeman said from corporate headquarters in Oklahoma City.

Construction supervisor Leon Smith of Mississippi is staying in an apartment in Tehachapi for the duration of the project.

Smith said the Tehachapi project is the 15th Love’s Travel Stop he has built.

“The truck drivers will like it,” said Smith, nodding at the stream of semis crossing over Tehachapi Blvd. on the Hwy 58 Summit (Monolith) overcrossing. “I’ve seen them lined up along the road [to rest].”

The general contractor is Harman Construction, Inc. of Fort Worth, Texas.

The center will include showers for professional truck drivers, a McDonald's and a Subway, the Country Store with general retail merchandise for the traveling public, parking for 77 cars, overnight parking for 90 big rigs, scales for measuring loads and eight truck fueling bays.

The site will employ “50 or more,” she said.

The Tehachapi store is one of the largest footprints of the Love's designs, she said, although “some are bigger.”

The biggest Love's truck stops are in Oklahoma and Texas, she said.

The company started as country stores and in the 1980s expanded into travel stops.

The local project - “Tehachapi No. 392” - is one of more than 220 Love's locations in 34 states and one of 165 travel stops.

The Tehachapi location will be the sixth Travel Stop and Country Store in California, joining the recently opened locations in Barstow, on I-15, Coachella, on I-10, Lost Hills, on I-5, Ripon, on State Highway 99, and Tulare, on State Highway 99.

The project has been years in the planning. Locations are carefully selected.

“We have a conservative approach to growth,” Dukeman said. The company has opened 20 locations in a year.

“We are opening 15 this year,” she said. “We plan on 15 per year.”

The site is tucked into land just to the east of the Highway 58 Summit, Monolith, over crossing and south of Tehachapi Boulevard. It is bounded on the east by Monolith Street and on the west by the Highway 58 on and off ramps that connect with Tehachapi Boulevard.