Funds Will Soon Begin Dwindling for S.D. County Highway Projects

Caltrans officials say they will bring a bigger and better highway system to San Diego County in 1987, but the construction will wind down in subsequent years and the additional roadways offer little hope of easing the region’s growing traffic troubles.

In a year-end report released this week, Caltrans District Director Bill Dotson reflected on progress during the past 12 months and warned that “lean periods” are ahead for highway improvements in San Diego County.

“Construction money will be in very short supply for this area beginning in just two short years,” Dotson said. “With the population exploding like it is here, we’re going to fall behind real fast, just when we need to expand our system the most.”

The Caltrans budget for District 11--which includes San Diego, Imperial and East Riverside counties--is $60 million for the coming year but will dwindle to $22 million in 1989 and $12.6 million in 1990, Dotson said.

Most transportation dollars come from the federal government, and the funding decline is a result of the current emphasis on completing the nation’s interstate freeway system, said Caltrans spokesman Jim Larson.

Because San Diego County’s interstate network is virtually complete, its share of federal dollars will be much smaller than that of areas with major freeway projects in the works--San Bernardino, Los Angeles and San Francisco among them.

“The practical effect of this is that we just won’t get help from the Feds to do the state highway improvements we desperately need,” Larson said. “Projects like extending Route 52 over to Santee valley, extending Highway 125 and completing the 40th Street connection of Interstate 15 will just have to wait.”

That’s bad news for motorists.

In past years, new highway construction has served to relieve congestion on existing roadways; when Interstate 5 grew crowded, for example, Interstate 805 came along to ease the crunch. But with building grinding to a halt under the current funding scenario, San Diego County’s traffic woes will only grow worse, Larson said.

Still, 17 major roadway improvements will be tackled in the San Diego district in 1987, and 11 are already under way. Among the major projects to be completed during the coming year are:

- The extension of California 52, from Interstate 805 to Convoy Street, at a cost of $11.7 million.

- The $1.8-million widening of the Interstate 5 bridge over the San Dieguito River in Del Mar.

- The $14.6-million construction of a new interchange at Interstate 8 and California 125.

- Construction of a new bridge over the Sweetwater River near Jamul on California 94 at a cost of $2.5 million.

Key projects that will just be getting under way in the new year are:

- The reconstruction of interchanges at Interstate 8 and California 125 on Grossmont Summit at a cost of $44 million.

- A $4.2-million widening of California 54 between Brabham and Washington streets in El Cajon.

- The $900,000 widening and realignment of California 76 at Olive Hill Road in Bonsall.

- The replacement of the Del Mar Heights Road bridge over Interstate 5, at a cost of $3.6 million.

- The final stage of the $20.5-million interchange construction at Interstate 5 and Highway 54 in the South Bay.

Perhaps the most interesting Caltrans project scheduled for 1987 is the $21.7-million construction of two so-called “high-occupancy vehicle lanes” on Interstate 15.

The lanes, which are open only to cars with two or more passengers, will run between the California 163 junction and Highway 56, just north of the Penasquitos area.

“These lanes are really promising in terms of helping congestion along that stretch and will hopefully encourage people to car pool,” Larson said. “The problem with Interstate 15 is that there are no good parallel (roads) that take you anywhere for any length of time. So the freeway is really constricted.”

Along similar lines, Caltrans will continue its metered ramp system to control the flow of traffic onto crowded routes.

“With construction of new roads limited, we’ve got to maximize the use of existing facilities,” Larson said. “That will only buy us time, but it’s the best we can do for now.”