Davis to Seek $5 Billion to Cut Traffic Tie-Ups

Gov. Gray Davis is expected this week to unveil a state transportation funding package of about $5 billion to help combat the worsening traffic congestion that has led to nightmarish commutes in many urban areas, according to sources in Sacramento.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority hopes to receive at least $632 million that it wants to use for exclusive bus lanes or light rail projects on the Eastside, in Mid-City and in the San Fernando Valley, where transit projects in the past have been scrapped because of a lack of funding. The agency also hopes to receive as much as $200 million more from the state in coming years to fund its operations.

Although administration officials refused to discuss the details in advance, the sources said Davis intends to pay for the transportation projects by tapping the state budget surplus and asking voters to approve general obligation bonds.

Top administration officials have been in touch with county transportation agencies and local elected officials to obtain their wish lists. Legislators and business interests from the Silicon Valley to San Diego have been weighing in with their priorities.

Agencies such as the MTA in Los Angeles have been rushing to launch environmental studies so that project planning, design and construction can move more quickly.

“Everybody is jockeying,” said one MTA board member who expressed confidence that “L.A. is going to get a batch of money.”

Based on his knowledge of the proposed package, Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles), who is running for mayor, said he expects the MTA to receive at least the $632 million.

He said transportation is right behind the No. 1 concern, education, among issues that the business community has raised with the legislative leadership. He said that addressing concerns about long commutes and inability to efficiently move goods is important to maintaining the quality of life that keeps business in California.

Davis spokesman Michael Bustamante would not offer any specifics about how the money would be spent, but described much of the investment as “catch-up” on projects that went begging when California did not put enough financial resources into its highway and mass transit systems.

The proposal requires approval from the Legislature, and the bonds would have to be approved by voters.

Bustamante did not suggest that Davis’ package would be a panacea for the traffic troubles that afflict much of the state. “He didn’t create gridlock and he isn’t going to solve it,” the aide said.

Instead, Bustamante said, the goal is “how best to deal with short-term and long-term transportation needs in California.”

The governor and top administration officials want to make sure that decisions on which projects to pursue--in mass transit and to a lesser degree highway improvements--are made at the local level and not in Sacramento.

Officials at the Orange County Transportation Authority were ecstatic about the prospect. In February, the agency whipped out a wish list containing nearly $400 million in projects after the governor’s office indicated that some of the budget surplus might go toward kick-starting much-needed transit projects.

Topping Orange County’s list is $250 million to add lanes to the Garden Grove Freeway as part of the county’s extensive carpool lane system.

Among the county’s other requests: a $20-million connector for the interchange of the Orange and Garden Grove freeways; $20 million to extend carpool lanes on the Santa Ana Freeway from Beach Boulevard north to the Los Angeles County line; and $12 million to $15 million to pay for preliminary engineering studies for CenterLine, the proposed 27-mile light rail system for Orange County.

“We haven’t had any indication from the governor’s office of what will be included, but we knew the [announcement] was coming,” said transit authority spokesman Dave Simpson.

Road Widening Needs Funding

Ginger Gherardi, executive director of the Ventura County Transportation Commission, said she hadn’t heard of any funding specifically earmarked for her county.

“We have not been contacted by anyone at the governor’s office . . . but if they are giving away presents, we feel we ought to get some too,” she said.

Gherardi said there are several local projects, including widening Lewis Road to Cal State Channel Islands, that need state funding.

Optimism about the possible funding led the MTA board in the last two months to authorize moving ahead with environmental studies for busway or light rail projects on four routes. The studies are the first step in a process that could lead to an MTA decision to build the transit improvements.

The agency also issued an urgent appeal to cities, transit operators and public works departments across Los Angeles County to submit wish lists by the end of March for additional street, highway, transit, bikeway, pedestrian and other transportation projects that could be pursued quickly if the state money materializes.

Just the prospect of billions of dollars in new money has triggered intense lobbying on behalf of competing transportation projects statewide.

Davis’ statements that he was making a major new commitment to transportation rang hollow when he unveiled his proposed state budget in January. Since then, the governor and key officials have been working to produce a comprehensive funding plan by mid-April.

“It’s a very optimistic time,” said MTA board member and county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who has spoken with the governor about the area’s transportation needs. “If things go the way I hope they go, we could end up with an Eastside, Mid-City and Valley solution virtually simultaneously.”

A little more than two years ago, the agency’s financial picture was bleak. In January 1998, the MTA board halted work on subway extensions to the Eastside and Mid-City and mass transit planning for the Valley because of financial troubles.

But this year, as officials across California began debating how to use the state’s multibillion-dollar general fund surplus, transportation improvements became a likely objective. With that in mind, MTA Chief Executive Officer Julian Burke told the agency’s directors in February that it was essential for the agency to unite behind projects that could be completed in five to seven years.

Putting aside the differences that have buffeted the board in the past, the MTA directors unanimously agreed to launch studies of the environmental impact of building a light rail line or a busway from Union Station through Boyle Heights and beyond, and constructing one exclusive busway along Wilshire Boulevard at least as far as Beverly Hills plus another across the Valley from North Hollywood to Warner Center along an old railroad right of way. Ideally, busways consist of their own traffic lanes or separate rights of way to speed movement of the vehicles.

Last month, after hearing speakers on all sides of the issue, the MTA board agreed to press ahead with environmental work on another busway or light rail line on the Exposition Boulevard right of way the agency owns from USC to the Westside.

But in response to intense opposition from affluent and politically powerful homeowners, the board approved a zigzag detour to avoid putting a future transit project on the right of way through the exclusive residential neighborhoods between Cheviot Hills and the San Diego Freeway.

While officials await word from the governor’s office, MTA planners and consultants will be busy examining the impacts, the cost, the potential ridership and benefits of the four routes. Ultimately, the results of the draft studies will be used to select a preferred project in each area.

“We moved the process ahead on the understanding that [the projects] would compete for state funding,” said MTA Chief Operating Officer Allan Lipsky.

The $632 million the MTA hopes to receive would pay for a little more than a third of the projects’ preliminary $1.6-billion cost.

MTA officials are counting on the federal government allowing the use of $647 million that had been pledged to the abandoned Eastside and Mid-City subway extensions for the new projects on Wilshire, Exposition and the Eastside. Other local and state funds would make up the remainder of the project costs.

Eastside Line Most Costly of Projects

The light rail extension from Union Station as far east as Atlantic Boulevard is the most costly of the projects at an estimated $704 million. Because of the narrow streets of Boyle Heights, the MTA board directed that consideration be given to constructing a 1.7-mile tunnel between Boyle Avenue and Lorena Street.

Although light rail is the preference, a busway along the same route also will be studied.

MTA board chairwoman and county Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke said she had spoken with Maria Contreras-Sweet, secretary of the state Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, about the importance of the Mid-Wilshire busway project. Contreras-Sweet has been holding extensive discussions with elected officials about the priorities and politics associated with the projects.

The MTA intends to study putting an exclusive busway on Wilshire from Vermont Avenue to San Vicente Boulevard. The buses would then continue in regular traffic through Beverly Hills and as far west as Santa Monica.

A light rail project on the Exposition corridor to the intersection of Venice and Robertson boulevards or a busway that would extend farther west to Santa Monica would bring the price tag for the Mid-City projects to $590 million.

The cost is pegged at $291 million for an exclusive 14-mile busway across the Valley from the North Hollywood subway station to Warner Center. The route would follow the old Burbank-Chandler right of way, which the MTA owns, and could be used by conventional buses or longer vehicles capable of carrying more passengers.