Countywide : $83 Million Approved for O.C. Road Improvements

Orange County Transportation Authority board members approved $83 million Monday for 200 regional transportation projects ranging from signal-light improvements to street widening.

“This is our major funding allocation for local street and regional road projects,” agency spokesman Bill Hodge said. “It will cover construction projects through the year 2002.”

The 200 projects picked for funding were selected from 406 applications submitted to the authority last October by local government agencies. The projects are part of the transit agency’s Regional Transportation Improvement Program.

Funding approved by the board includes a onetime allocation of $3.7 million for local street-improvement projects normally paid for from Orange County gas tax revenue. The county has distributed these funds to cities for 39 years.

However, county officials announced last month that the county’s bankruptcy prevented them from distributing gas tax revenue from the new budget, effective Oct. 1. OCTA board members voted to make the funding available out of the transit agency’s budget on a onetime basis.

The transportation improvement program targets “regionally significant” projects that will improve air quality. The transportation authority decides which projects should be funded first.

Some of the projects that will be funded with the $83-million allocation include the widening of Pacific Coast Highway in San Clemente, widening and improving the intersection of Bristol Street and Edinger Avenue in Santa Ana and improving signal-light coordination on Beach Boulevard in Huntington Beach.