Sandag Wants $1 Million to Hike Highway 52 Hopes

The San Diego Assn. of Governments recommended Friday that $1 million be set aside for the construction of California 52, hoping that the move will encourage Caltrans to change its mind about excluding the highway’s extension from the state’s five-year construction plan.

Caltrans officials in Sacramento had recommended dropping plans for the extension, which could ease rush-hour congestion on both Interstate 8 and Mission Gorge Road by extending 52 from Tierrasanta to Santee. They said San Diego in recent years had received more than its share of highway projects.

San Diego City Councilman Ed Struiksma asked his fellow Sandag board members for the injection of local funding support, saying that it would serve as earnest money to show the state how important the project is to San Diego County.

Struiksma said he asked for the allocation after consulting with Tom Hawthorne, San Diego’s state highway commissioner, who told him he thought the state would match the $1 million appropriation and thus keep the project alive. The $2 million would pay the cost of planning the project, Struiksma said.

Caltrans Opposed Project

Caltrans in March recommended dropping the project from the current plan because San Diego already has several “partially funded” projects, a state official said on Friday.

Richard Coward, Caltrans’ San Diego-based project manager for Highway 52, said the impression was that “we’ve been getting a little more than our share (of highway projects) in recent years. Mainly it’s a matter of competition.” This year “about $800 million in requests are competing for about $300 million in available funds,” Coward said.

Currently Highway 52 links I-5 and I-805 east of La Jolla. A construction project under way now is extending the highway from I-805 to Santo Road in Tierrasanta. A new section running from I-805 to Convoy Road is scheduled to open in July, Coward said, with the extension to Santo Road expected to be completed by May 1988.

Struiksma, San Diego city’s representative to Sandag, told the executive committee, “The obligation has fallen back on the locals to . . . put together the political action necessary to get (a favorable) vote” from the highway commission. He said the executive committee action will get the attention of the California Transportation Commission members. They are due to meet June 24 and 25 in Sacramento to vote on the plan.

The allocation still must be approved by the full Sandag board on June 26. The money, part of a federal grant, is in a Sandag reserve account for highway programs.

Struiksma said the Route 52 extension could fall behind by 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 years if it were dropped from the current 5-year construction plan.

“Ideally we would like to have $10 million,” he said, noting that is the sum needed to purchase property along the route’s nine-mile right of way.

A Caltrans official in Sacramento said the agency recommended dropping the Highway 52 extension until “we complete the funding of those projects that were partially funded.” Spokesman Gene Berthelsen said the Route 52 project is in competition locally with a planned widening of Highway 78 between Oceanside and Escondido and an extension of I-15 through Normal Heights at 40th Street.

The extension is also receiving some opposition from Santee residents, who want the highway, but objected at a Wednesday night Santee City Council meeting to the two proposed routes under consideration by Caltrans because they would displace a number of mobile home sites.