Local News in Brief : AQMD Threatens Suit
The South Coast Air Quality Management District board threatened Friday to go to court to revive a controversial plan for a “diamond lane” on the Ventura Freeway, nearly a year after Caltrans killed the proposal in response to widespread opposition in the San Fernando Valley.
The AQMD board approved sending a letter to the Federal Highway Administration demanding that federal funds be withheld from the upcoming widening of the freeway unless a new eastbound lane is restricted to car pools and buses.
The federal government is expected to pay about 85% of the $22-million cost of expanding the freeway to five lanes each way between the Hollywood Freeway and Topanga Canyon Boulevard.
The air board’s decision, if successfully implemented, might also be applied to other Southern California freeways slated for widening over the next decade and tentatively identified by Caltrans as suited for diamond lanes, an AQMD spokesman said.
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