How to Spend Billions in Gas Tax Dollars? Officials Ponder 7-Year Plan for Southland

From the widening of California 14 in the Antelope Valley to the construction of the last link of Interstate 15 in San Diego, millions of dollars in new highway projects for Southern California are being presented to state officials this week for inclusion in a master road-building plan.

With billions of dollars in new cash from a gasoline tax increase at their disposal, members of the California Transportation Commission are expected to sift through recommendations from regional agencies representing Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside and Ventura counties to map out a new seven-year plan for easing a congestion crisis in Southern California.

Peter Hathaway, the commission’s deputy director for finance, said the regional agencies have recommended nearly twice as many projects as the state can afford--forcing the commission to pick and choose among them when it officially adopts the State Transportation Improvement Program next month.

Other officials said the commission is expected generally to adhere to priorities recommended by the regional agencies and to drop only those projects that local officials deem less pressing.

The projects include proposals for widening highways, extending freeways, constructing sound walls, adding car-pool lanes and synchronizing traffic lights.

Neil Peterson, executive director of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, said that in setting priorities his agency recommended projects that would “improve air quality, reduce accidents and improve the efficiency of the existing highway network.”

Of the $746 million in projects proposed by the regional commission, $206 million would be devoted to the construction of car-pool lanes and $62 million to synchronize traffic signals at various locations. Car-pool lanes are expected to improve air quality by decreasing the number of automobiles, and synchronized traffic signals are designed to make traffic flow more easily.

Under the commission proposals, car-pool lanes would be built along the San Diego Freeway (Interstate 405) from Normandie Avenue near Torrance to the Orange County line, on the San Bernardino Freeway (Interstate 10) from Baldwin Avenue to Puente Avenue, and along the Orange Freeway (California 57) from the Pomona Freeway (California 60) to the Orange County line.

Other projects given high priority by the LACTC and expected to become part of the state plan include a proposal for completing the expansion of California 30 in the city of La Verne and constructing a six-lane freeway between Foothill Boulevard and the San Bernardino County line.

The regional agency has also recommended widening California 14 in the Antelope Valley from San Fernando Road to Escondido Summit.

Not given high priority by the LACTC is a plan to widen the Pomona Freeway from the Orange Freeway to the San Bernardino County line. Officials said an engineering glitch had forced them to give the project a low priority, but they expected the problem to be resolved by the time it comes up again for consideration in 1992.

Most of the major projects placed before the state commission for consideration were promised voters when they were asked June 5 to endorse a gasoline tax increase. But one project that was not touted by backers of Proposition 111--the ballot measure that triggered the gas tax increase--was the extension of the Long Beach Freeway (Interstate 710) through South Pasadena. The project is bitterly opposed by residents of that city.

In its recommendations, the LACTC has asked state officials to endorse two projects that would begin to acquire right-of-way for the Long Beach Freeway extension.

Elsewhere in Southern California, local officials also attempted to live up to promises made to the voters. Projects that received recommendations from San Diego officials included those that would complete Interstate 15 through City Heights and widen Interstate 5 and add car-pool lanes.

In San Bernardino County, officials proposed the completion of California 30 from the Los Angeles County line to Interstate 215. Orange County seeks funds for widening the Santa Ana Freeway (Interstate 5).