State Speeds Up Funding of Southland Road Work : Prop. 111: Transportation Commission allocates money to be raised by higher gasoline taxes for the Century Freeway and other projects.

The Century Freeway and dozens of other road projects in Southern California became the first to benefit Wednesday from the voters’ decision June 5 to endorse a gasoline tax increase.

Rushing to get work delayed by funding shortages back on schedule, the California Transportation Commission approved $257 million in backlogged projects scattered throughout the state. But most of the initial funding went to the south, with the biggest chunks--totaling $118.5 million--slated for construction on two phases of the Century Freeway and on state routes 30 and 330 in San Bernardino County.

Lesser amounts went to other road work stretching from Ventura County to San Diego County. “We intend to accelerate as fast as we can,” said commission Chairman William Leonard. “ . . . The public didn’t support (the gas tax increase) in order to put money in the bank.”

Highway officials had been forced to delay funding for a list of projects during the last year as the state’s 9-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax became inadequate to meet the transportation demands of a rapidly expanding population.

“If the voters had not approved the tax increase, the delays would have continued and the 105 (Century Freeway) would have come to a screeching halt,” said Charles J. O’Connell, a Caltrans deputy district director in Los Angeles.

The California Transportation Commission allocates funds for state transportation projects; Caltrans, or the Department of Transportation, administers them and makes recommendations to the commission.

On June 5, the voters approved Proposition 111, a ballot measure that modified the state’s spending limit and permitted gas tax increases. Motorists will begin paying a 5-cent-per-gallon increase on Aug. 1 and then 1-cent-per-gallon increases every January for the next four years.

The tax hikes are designed to help finance a 10-year, $18.5-billion transportation program that allows the state to catch up with backlogged projects and start new ones to formulate a multifaceted plan for easing traffic congestion.

“I think we are in a very exciting stage here in California,” said Assemblyman Jim Costa (D-Fresno). “In the next four or five years we are going to be designing some innovative transportation strategies . . . that I think may lead the nation.”

Voters will begin to see the effects of the tax increase as the commission continues to authorize highway construction projects throughout the year. By the end of 1990, officials estimate they will have approved $1 billion worth of new road projects.

O’Connell said the commission’s decision to make the Century Freeway one of its first priorities ensures that “we have a reasonable chance” of completing the massive project in time for its scheduled opening in September, 1993. The funds approved for the Century Freeway totaled $65.9 million.

“You might say Caltrans management is aware that all of the pieces of the 105 (Century) fit together. These projects don’t stand alone; they have an impact one on the other . . . if one is postponed you’re really looking at delaying the opening of a $2-billion project,” O’Connell said.

Begun in the spring of 1982, the 17.3 miles of roadway between Norwalk and the eastern edge of Los Angeles International Airport will, upon completion, be the most expensive stretch of freeway ever built in the United States. The total price tag is expected to be more than $2 billion for six lanes of freeway for regular traffic, two lanes for buses and car pools, a light rail line in the freeway median and replacement housing for those displaced by the highway’s construction.

The funds approved Wednesday not only permit the Century Freeway construction to continue but allow Caltrans to clean up a toxic waste dump that had embroiled the agency in a dispute with the Catholic Church. The expenditures authorized by the commission included $22 million to remove and seal a dump in the Century Freeway construction zone near St. Frances X. Cabrini Catholic Church and parish school in South-Central Los Angeles.

For months, the church has been pushing for removal of the dump only to hear from Caltrans that the costs were so high that the church might have to share in them. In recent weeks, however, officials said they found a way to complete the project without exceeding their original construction costs estimates for the freeway.

“I think they came up with a good solution,” said Father David O’Connell, the parish priest. He is not related to the Caltrans official. “I think the public put quite a bit of pressure on Caltrans and I think they did respond to the people. It proves if you get mad enough sometimes you can get a lot done.”

The remaining $43.9 million authorized for the Century Freeway will finance the construction of a transit station and a part of the freeway near Inglewood and Lemoli Avenues.

In San Bernardino County, approval of $52.6 million for construction work on routes 330 and 30 gives the go-ahead for a project in the East San Bernardino-Highland Valley that would extend the existing Crosstown Freeway (California 30) 3.7 miles from its terminus at Arden-Highland Avenue to 5th Street.

The same project also provides for an extension of California 330 from City Creek Canyon to its new junction with the Crosstown Freeway in the city of Highland, a distance of about 1.7 miles. With the construction of 23 bridges and an extensive drainage system, it is the single biggest freeway contract ever authorized for that area of the state.

MAJOR ROAD PROJECTS

Here are the major road projects in Southern California approved by the California Transportation Commission:

$43.9 million for the construction of a transit station near the Century Freeway in the vicinity of Inglewood and Lemoli avenues and another $22 million to remove and dispose of hazardous waste in the Century Freeway corridor near Western and Normandie avenues.

$52.6 million in San Bernardino County to extend the Crosstown Freeway (Route 30) 3.7 miles from its current terminus at Arden-Highland Avenue to 5th Street. The same project would also extend Route 330 1.7 miles from City Creek Canyon to its new junction with the Crosstown Freeway in Highland.

$9.6 million to widen Route 126 in Ventura County from two to four lanes west of Castaic Junction from Powell Road to Center Street.

In San Diego County, $3.8 million to widen Route 78 in Oceanside from four to six lanes from the intersection with Route 5 to three miles east of College Boulevard.

Los Angeles’ Foothill Freeway (Route 210) to undergo $2.1 million in roadway rehabilitation and bridge repairs on a stretch from Paxton Street to just east of Wheatland Avenue.