New South Bay Road-Work Funding OKd

The third phase of a new freeway interchange and flood control channel on the National City-Chula Vista border was approved Thursday by the California Transportation Commission.

The cost of the $35-million project linking Interstate 5 and California 54 is to be shared by the state Department of Transportation, San Diego County and the Army Corps of Engineers, said Jim Larson, a spokesman for Caltrans.

The third phase (the entire $100-million project consists of four phases) calls for construction of part of the Sweetwater River Flood Control Channel and construction of five bridges, including one over the channel at Edgemere Avenue. It also calls for removal of a bridge, Larson said.

The first phase of the project, now complete, cost $5.6 million and involved building a detour for I-5, Larson said.

Work on the $41.3-million second phase, which Larson said will probably continue into 1988, is the most expensive. It calls for rebuilding the National City Boulevard bridge, marsh restoration, some work on the Sweetwater channel from San Diego Bay to Highland Avenue and construction of 11 bridges.

Three existing bridges will be removed and another bridge will be widened during phase two, which is only 20% complete, he said.

The final phase, which is scheduled to begin in the 1986-1987 fiscal year, should be finished around 1989, Larson said. This phase is estimated to cost $16 million and will complete the paving for Highway 54 between Interstate 805 and Highland. Two new bridges will be built, and two existing ones will be removed, he said.

Larson also said that Caltrans plans to purchase an additional 10.6 acres in the project area and develop it as new marshland. Sixteen acres of new marsh have already been created by the Army Corps of Engineers, he said, and 188 acres of marsh between Interstate 5 and the bay are being preserved.