State Shortfall to Delay Local Highway Projects : Transportation: The $522-million shortage is expected to add two years to some programs already earmarked for funding.

A $522-million shortfall in state funding will delay several major Ventura County highway projects by two years or more and eliminate millions of dollars in financing, transportation officials said Friday.

The shortfall has prompted the California Transportation Commission to reconsider highway projects already earmarked for funding, said Chris Stephens, manager of the county’s planning and highway programs.

The county has been instructed to resubmit a list of priority road projects next month, based on 10% less funding, Stephens said. It must also compile an alternative list reflecting a 25% funding reduction in case the shortfall worsens.

“They want us to put a list of projects together, then draw a line across it and whatever falls below that gets cut,” Stephens said.

Currently, the county’s highway priority list includes four projects with a combined cost of roughly $100 million. Consequently, a 10% funding reduction would result in a cut of about $10 million.

Although the state has asked local transportation agencies to prepare for a 10% cut, some counties will probably see a more significant loss, officials said.

Rural counties, for instance, may have only one major transportation project scheduled for construction, said Ginger Gherardi, director of the Ventura County Transportation Commission. So rather than cutting that county’s funding 100%, the state would look to make up the 10% cut somewhere else, she said.

“The funding cuts will not be straight across the board in every county,” Gherardi said. “It may be that some counties will take more cuts.”

Caltrans District Director Ken Steele also warned the county Transportation Commission on Friday that the $522-million funding shortfall could worsen and that local agencies may be looking at more severe cuts.

“We are finding these to be especially challenging times,” he said. “I think a half-a-billion [dollar] shortfall is even optimistic.”

Meanwhile, all four of the county’s top priority projects will have their construction schedules pushed back at least two years.

This means, for instance, that long-awaited improvements and bridge widening on a stretch of the Ventura Freeway between Vineyard Avenue and Johnson Drive in Oxnard and Ventura would begin in 1998, rather than next year.

Stephens said county transportation officials will re-evaluate their highway priority list before submitting it to the state transportation commission next month. He said some of the factors to be considered are the scope of each project and how soon construction could begin.

“The California Transportation Commission wants to make sure that whatever year we propose a project for construction that it can, in fact, be constructed on that schedule,” Stephens said.

He said the state transportation panel is not expected to make a final decision on specific funding cuts until April.

Separately, Amtrak officials Friday told county transportation officials that they plan to add more passenger service between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara beginning next month.

Bob Berger, an Amtrak manager, said Amtrak plans to add a fourth round-trip train between the two cities on Oct. 29. He said one of the passenger lines will also extend to San Luis Obispo.

The Los Angeles-to-Santa Barbara line will include stops in Simi Valley, Moorpark, Camarillo, Ventura and Oxnard.

“We’re very excited about it,” Berger said of the added service. “It’s a very popular route.”

A final schedule for the new passenger rail line will be out in the next few weeks.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Ventura County Highway Priority List

Construction schedules for each of the projects have been pushed back at least two years and financing for one or more could be eliminated because of a half-billion-dollar state funding Project: Ventura Freeway improvements and bridge widening between Vineyard Avenue and Johnson Drive

Cost: $28 million

Delay: 1996 to 1998

*

Project: Pacific Coast Highway interchange improvements at Pleasant Valley Road and Rice Avenue junction

Cost: $36 million

Delay: 1997 to 1999

*

Project: Ventura Freeway and Seaward Avenue interchange reconstruction

Cost: $8.6 million

Delay: 1997 to 1999

*

Project: Ventura Freeway and California 34 interchange improvements

Cost: $25 million

Delay: 1999 to 2003

Source: Ventura County Transportation Commission