CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS : State Rail Bond Measure’s Defeat Could Curtail Highway Projects

By turning back Proposition 156, a $1-billion rail bond measure, California voters prompted a far-reaching restructuring of the state’s transportation improvement program that ironically could delay or stop scores of highway projects, state officials said Wednesday.

Among the projects adversely affected is the reconstruction of the “Orange Crush,” the interchange of the Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Orange freeways.

Highways will be affected by the failure of a rail bond measure because the Legislature has mandated that state transportation projects be divided equitably throughout the state based on complicated fund-sharing formulas.

Los Angeles and other cities that want rail lines were to get most of the rail bond money, leaving larger shares of other state transportation funds for rural and suburban areas. Now, without the bonds, much of the remaining money will have to be shifted back to cities.

As a result, state officials warned, hundreds of millions of dollars may be siphoned from highway-construction funds for rural and suburban areas, primarily in Northern and Central California, to complete rail-transit projects in Los Angeles County and the Bay Area.

Some rail projects also are likely to be delayed or scrapped, local transit officials said. In Los Angeles County, this includes trolley lines or busways to Santa Monica, Glendale, South El Monte, Torrance and Azusa, and along Crenshaw Boulevard in South Los Angeles.

Although some of these transportation projects may be canceled outright and others allowed to proceed as planned, most are likely to simply be postponed--some indefinitely, state officials said.

Proposition 156 sought voter approval of the second of three $1-billion bond issues to help finance an expansion of rail transit in California. The expansion plan and first bond sale were approved in 1990, and the third issue is scheduled to appear on the 1994 ballot.

At a California Transportation Commission meeting Wednesday in Sacramento, commission Chairman Ken Kevorkian pledged to find ways to soften the impact on the state’s transportation program.

“We are not planning to cut any project right now. We’re trying to keep our commitment to build all of them,” he said in a telephone interview. “How we are going to do that, I don’t know.”

Kevorkian said the commission, which sets priorities for state transportation projects, will meet in the next few weeks with the California Department of Transportation and local transportation agencies to decide how to cope with the unexpected loss of funds.

Neil Peterson, executive director of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, said several other options may be explored at that meeting, from seeking additional federal funding from the new Clinton Administration in Washington to exploring the possibility of selling some local bonds partially supported by the state.

Peterson said the state may even consider going back to voters with the same bond sale they rejected 52% to 48% Tuesday. This time, he said, a more vigorous campaign could drive home the benefits of bonds--and the costs of failing to pass them.

“Before we talk about canceling this project or delaying that one, we are doing everything in our power to minimize the impact of this,” Peterson said.

Neither Peterson nor Kevorkian wished to talk specifically about potential cuts. But, before the election, the state commission released a list of projects that it said would be “subject to re-evaluation” if Proposition 156 was not approved.

The biggest Southern California highway project threatened by the defeat of Proposition 156 is the California 30 freeway between La Verne and San Bernardino--the long-awaited third alternative into Los Angeles County from the booming Inland Empire. More than $245 million in construction funds for that 28.2-mile freeway are immediately in doubt, and the entire $600-million project may be delayed for years, Caltrans officials said.

Other major projects on the endangered list are: California 60 widening in Riverside County, $57.7 million; and nine projects to widen and otherwise improve U.S. 101 in Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, and the Orange Crush interchange, budgeted at $247.7 million. Combined, those projects total $197.5 million.

Orange County officials said work on the Orange Crush would not be halted, but could take longer to complete because of slower cash flow. No details are known, officials said, but the Interstate 5 project could suffer a funding delay of $50 million to $75 million. “It means the money won’t flow to the project as fast as we would like,” said Stan Oftelie, chief executive officer of the Orange County Transportation Authority.

The California Transportation Commission’s pre-election list did not include any rail-transit projects it thought might be jeopardized if Proposition 156 failed. But local agencies made their own predictions before the polls opened.

Los Angeles County transit officials had warned that it could result in postponement or elimination of a busway or light-rail line planned for Exposition Boulevard, between downtown Los Angeles and Santa Monica.

Failure of the bond measure also threatens light-rail lines to Glendale and parallel to the Pomona Freeway, as well as a Metro Green Line extension from El Segundo to Torrance and a Blue Line extension from Pasadena to Azusa. A light-rail line along Crenshaw Boulevard in South Los Angeles also is in danger.

The Transportation Commission said money earmarked for those projects will be shifted to other, higher-priority projects to make up for the loss of Proposition 156 funds.

The higher-priority projects include a $1.3-billion San Fernando Valley rail line, 38% of which was to come from Proposition 156; a $633-million Blue Line from Los Angeles to Pasadena, half funded with bonds; and a $212.8-million Green Line extension to Los Angeles International Airport, also half from bonds.

Metrolink, Southern California’s new commuter railroad, also was to share in the bond money to fund service expansions to Riverside and Orange County next year. LACTC officials said the $54.6 million will be diverted to Metrolink from other projects that will be postponed until new funding sources can be found.

Intercity Amtrak service subsidized by Caltrans also could be scaled back, with time-saving track improvements between San Diego and Santa Barbara being dropped and plans for $30 million in new services being shelved.

Times staff writer Jeffrey A. Perlman contributed to this story.