Transit Panel Allocates Project Funds : Roads: County officials earmark $14.3 million for 24 proposals. Air pollution and traffic will be targeted.

The Ventura County Transportation Commission on Friday allocated more than $14.3 million in federal funds to help reduce air pollution, ease traffic jams and improve the condition of roads and bicycle paths across the county.

Picking through 60 competing proposals submitted by city and county officials, the commissioners approved a list of 24 projects that qualify for money under two federal transportation programs.

The projects range from widening congested intersections and synchronizing traffic lights to laying out new bike trails and purchasing buses that run on clean-burning natural gas.

The largest single allocation--$4.5 million--went to the city of Ventura for reconstruction of the southern side of the highly congested Victoria Avenue-Ventura Freeway interchange.

“Most people who are familiar with the Victoria-Highway 101 interchange would probably agree that it’s one of the worst, if not the worst in the county,” said Ron Calkins, Ventura’s public works director. Ventura will contribute another $2.5 million to begin the project in 1996.

“The accident rate there is at least three times higher than it should be,” Calkins said. “These improvements are extremely important to improve the safety conditions and relieve the congestion.”

The Victoria Avenue intersection scored highly on a rating system used to divvy up $9.3 million in federal Surface Transportation Program funds, earmarked for projects that produce regionwide benefits. The Transportation Commission split the remaining surface transportation program dollars among 13 other projects.

In addition, the commission in a 6-1 vote approved a separate list of 10 other projects that best qualified for $5 million available under the federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement program.

Commissioner Nancy Grasmehr opposed this list because it included several projects for bicyclists, including countywide bike racks and lockers, a bicycle overpass in Ventura and a bicycle trail in Ojai.

She said most bicycles in Ventura County are used for recreation, not as a substitute for cars. “We don’t live in Davis, and we don’t live in Santa Barbara, where bicycles effectively get cars off the road,” Grasmehr said.

South Coast Area Transit, which serves five west county cities, will use $1.1-million in air quality funds to buy five new buses that will operate on natural gas, greatly reducing air pollution.

“We’re well on the way to replacing our entire fleet with natural gas buses,” said Peter G. Drake, the system’s general manager.

Drawing from the same fund, Simi Valley Transit will use its $1.7 million for low-pollution buses, but city officials said the type of fuel they will use has not been decided.

Among the the surface transportation program fund recipients, the city of Oxnard received $1.5 million for design work on improvements to the Rice Avenue-Ventura Freeway interchange, a project that ultimately will cost $32 million.

The commission also allocated about $1.2 million to the county to improve Santa Clara and Central avenues in preparation for a new California State University campus planned between Oxnard and Camarillo.

At Friday’s meeting, the commissioners decided to withhold $3 million that county officials sought to realign and widen Moorpark Road between Tierra Rejada and Santa Rosa roads.

The commissioners knocked the project from the list because of objections from city leaders in Moorpark, Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley, who complained that they had not been consulted about the project and feared it would encourage new development in the area.

They also argued that the distribution of federal funds had shortchanged cities in the east county.

In a 5-2 vote, the commission directed its staff to work with the county and the three cities to refine the Moorpark Road plan or propose another $3-million project that would benefit the east county.

“Even that doesn’t provide completely equitable distribution (of the federal funds),” said Mike Sedell, Simi Valley’s assistant city manager. “But it comes closer.”

Transportation Projects The Ventura County Transportation Commission has approved two dozen projects that qualify for federal funds earmarked to ease traffic congestion, improve roads and reduce air pollution. PROJECT: Victoria Avenue-Ventura Freeway interchange improvements APPLICANT: Ventura ALLOCATION: $4.5 million PROJECT: Clean fuel buses APPLICANT: Simi Valley ALLOCATION: $1,677,960 PROJECT: Rice Avenue-Ventura Freeway interchange improvements APPLICANT: Oxnard ALLOCATION: $1.5 million PROJECT: Clean fuel buses APPLICANT: South Coast Area Transit ALLOCATION: $1,128,757 PROJECT: Santa Clara Avenue improvements APPLICANT: Ventura County ALLOCATION: $1,078,440 PROJECT: Meiners Oaks bike trail APPLICANT: Ojai ALLOCATION: $636,900 PROJECT: Ventura Freeway bus service APPLICANT: Ventura County Transportation Commission (VCTC) ALLOCATION: $417,900 PROJECT: Arroyo Simi bike trail APPLICANT: Simi Valley ALLOCATION: $407,000 PROJECT: Ride-sharing program APPLICANT: Commuter Transportation Services Inc. ALLOCATION: $400,000 PROJECT: Bike overpass APPLICANT: Ventura ALLOCATION: $350,000 PROJECT: Las Posas-Hueneme roads intersection improvements APPLICANT: Ventura County ALLOCATION: $332,000 PROJECT: Traffic signal synchronization project APPLICANT: Oxnard ALLOCATION: $267,000 PROJECT: Santa Clara bike trail project APPLICANT: Santa Paula ALLOCATION: $220,000 PROJECT: Central Avenue improvements APPLICANT: Ventura County ALLOCATION: $211,560 PROJECT: Santa Rosa Road improvements APPLICANT: Camarillo ALLOCATION: $196,250 PROJECT: Montgomery Street-Ojai Avenue intersection improvements APPLICANT: Ojai ALLOCATION: $185,850 PROJECT: Tierra Rejada-Moorpark roads intersection improvements APPLICANT: Moorpark ALLOCATION: $180,000 PROJECT: Transit marketing APPLICANT: VCTC ALLOCATION: $177,060 PROJECT: Traffic mitigation fee APPLICANT: Ventura County ALLOCATION: $132,795 PROJECT: Air pollution project APPLICANT: Air Pollution Control District ALLOCATION: $98,125 PROJECT: Clean fleet vehicles APPLICANT: Oxnard and Moorpark ALLOCATION: $88,530 PROJECT: Simi Valley Transportation Management Assn. APPLICANT: VCTC ALLOCATION: $75,000 PROJECT: Teleconference Center APPLICANT: State Department of Transportation ALLOCATION: $50,000 PROJECT: Countywide bike racks and lockers APPLICANT: VCTC ALLOCATION: $38,530 Source: Ventura County Transportation Commission