Route 2 Takes a Back Seat to Freeways in Bid for Funds : Route 2 Takes Back Seat to Freeways in Funds Bid

Underground tunnels and other expensive proposals for widening Santa Monica Boulevard will not be able to compete with freeway construction projects for state funds at least through the mid-1990s, a state Department of Transportation planner said Wednesday.

If the city of Beverly Hills comes up with independent financing, however, a tunnel project would most likely get a higher priority, said J. E. Hallin, a project development coordinator for Caltrans.

He spoke after a hearing Tuesday on a study of proposals for relieving traffic congestion along a six-mile stretch of the boulevard, also known as California 2, from the San Diego Freeway to Fairfax Avenue.

A proposal for a freeway along the route was dropped in 1975 in the face local opposition. Caltrans planners said the boulevard is congested every day, has an above-average accident rate and is likely to be the scene of increased development in the future.

Caltrans estimated that the cost of a full-scale widening complete with tunnels at $255 million, a figure disputed by Irwin Kaplan, planning director for Beverly Hills, who said it could be done for $145 million.

Self-Financing

The tunnels, intended to direct through traffic under the city, would free existing streets for local traffic, Kaplan said.

He suggested that neighboring cities interested in an underground solution might come up with some sort of self-financing arrangement, but he gave no details.

In any case, Hallin said, “If it’s left up to Caltrans’ resources, we probably wouldn’t be able to fund in the near future something that extensive.”

For the next few years, he said, work on the Century Freeway is expected to take up most of the approximately $1 billion a year in state highway funds allocated to Los Angeles County projects.

After that, the top priority will most likely be an extension of the northern end of the Long Beach Freeway through Alhambra and South Pasadena.

So if the decision is made to go with the most expensive proposal for Santa Monica Boulevard, “it’s much less likely to be funded than a $60-million project, or $10 million, or $1 million, or zero,” Hallin said.

Caltrans already has approval for several million dollars in improvements along that stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard, including a computerized system for coordinating traffic signals, Hallin said.

Alternatives being considered for the next step range from no action at all, through limited measures such as a ban on rush-hour parking, to more elaborate solutions such as widening the street to six lanes and putting stretches of it underground.

The right of way once occupied by the Southern Pacific Railroad would be used to add extra lanes of traffic, a proposal opposed by two West Hollywood City Council members at Tuesday night’s hearing.

City’s ‘Heart and Life’

“To remove the median strip (once occupied by the railroad) is to build a freeway in the heart and life of our city,” said Councilwoman Valerie Terrigno.

West Hollywood Mayor John Heilman said widening Santa Monica Boulevard would deprive the new city of many of the amenities of its major east-west thoroughfare, which it hopes to develop as a walking and shopping street.

It would also increase traffic on the city’s north-south streets as drivers from other areas seek to take advantage of the increased capacity of Santa Monica Boulevard, Heilman said.

Kaplan, representing Beverly Hills, said any solution short of building underground tunnels would quickly be overtaken by increased traffic.

“This is the last chance we have to begin looking at a long-term, durable solution, rather than a street-widening that will be obsolete in a few years, and then we’ll be back here talking about another widening, or, again, a tunnel,” he said.

Other speakers included Alec Mann, a Sierra Club representative, who said the money proposed for street-widening would be better spent on improving public transportation.

Laura M. Lake, president of the Friends of Westwood, a residents group, called for landscaping, jogging and bike paths and other amenities as part of any highway project.

“Westwood wants green space, not gridlock,” she said, winning cheers from the crowd of about 150 at Emerson Junior High School.

Other neighborhood residents criticized the Caltrans study for finding no significant impact on the environment from any of the possible projects.

“There ought to be substantive socioeconomic benefits, not just a lack of negative impacts,” said Marc Appleton, an architect working with the Friends of Westwood group.

But Hallin said that without any action, “The traffic will still be there. At least this provides some relief for the interim.”

Caltrans’ final recommendation is expected to be released next summer.