San Diego

After being stalled for three years by numerous financial and political roadblocks, construction of the San Diego Trolley’s East Line extension got rolling Monday with a series of ground-breaking ceremonies along the trolley’s future route from downtown San Diego to El Cajon.

The 11.5-mile eastward extension, scheduled for completion by the end of 1989, is expected to cost $93 million, of which $51 million will be covered by grants from the federal Urban Mass Transportation Administration, $32 million from the state and $10 million from local sources, according to the Metropolitan Transit Development Board, which operates the trolley.

MTDB Chairman James R. Mills has said he is confident that the line will be finished “on time and under budget.”

There will be eight stations on the new line. The trip from downtown San Diego to the line’s terminus in El Cajon should average 45 minutes, according to MTDB, which also estimates that, by the year 2000, more than 20,000 riders a day will use the trolley to commute to downtown from East County.