Caltrans Chief Predicts State Will Fund More Lanes on I-5
Caltrans Director Leo J. Trombatore predicted Thursday that the state Transportation Commission will go along with his--and Orange County’s--request for an additional $60 million to finance the widening of a section of the Santa Ana Freeway from six to 12 lanes.
On Monday, county transportation officials expressed doubts that the state panel would approve such a big change in the state’s five-year transportation-improvement program. The original plan called for widening Interstate 5 from the current six lanes to eight lanes at a cost of about $60 million.
After an environmental review, the California Department of Transportation decided last week to support the proposed $120-million, 12-lane project instead.
The new project calls for widening the Santa Ana Freeway from the junction of the Costa Mesa Freeway to the San Diego Freeway. Two of the new lanes would be reserved for buses and car pools.
“A preferred alternative” to the original plan “has now evolved as a result of the environmental process,” Trombatore said Thursday at a state Transportation Commission meeting in Los Angeles. “I will recommend the request for additional funding to the commission in the 1987 STIP (State Transportation Improvement Program) cycle.”
Trombatore said he does not anticipate any difficulty in obtaining the necessary funding authority.
“The commission has never denied a preferred alternative that Caltrans has recommended and we don’t expect it to happen now,” Trombatore said.
The project is now scheduled for construction in 1989-90.
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