Davis’ Road Plan Includes $18 Million for Region

The sweeping package of highway projects that Gov. Gray Davis is scheduled to unveil today will include $18 million in spending for road improvements in Ventura County, officials said Wednesday.

Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) said $15 million will be used to move the often traffic-choked Ventura Freeway offramp at California Street in Ventura. The remaining $3 million will be used to study traffic congestion on the freeway between Thousand Oaks and North Hollywood.

“My job was to get the money, so I’m ecstatic,” said Jackson, who lobbied for relocating the freeway ramp because she found it confusing.

Jackson, whose district includes Ventura, Santa Paula and Ojai, had argued that moving the offramp would improve tourism by making California Street safer for people trying to reach the waterfront promenade off Harbor Boulevard.

“It’s impossible to make a left turn to go to the beach. We are also supposed to have a free flow to downtown and it’s terribly confusing. It’s certainly scary to exit California Street if you are a first-time user,” she said.

Both projects are part of a proposed $5-billion package aimed at improving increasingly gridlocked California roadways that Davis is expected to unveil at news conferences in San Jose and North Hollywood. The governor hopes to fund the massive transportation package with $2.8 billion in state surplus, which would require legislative approval, and $2.2 billion in voter-approved general obligation bonds.

The funding plan, though, irks both Democratic and Republican lawmakers, some of whom say the state surplus should cover the entire bill.

Although the road work will relieve some local traffic problems, reaction to the funding from Ventura County leaders also was mixed.

“There are other projects we thought had higher priority,” said Ginger Gherardi, executive director of the Ventura County Transportation Commission.

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Specifically, Gherardi wanted money to widen Lewis Road in Camarillo to make access to the proposed Cal State Channel Islands easier. She also hoped for improvements to the interchange at California 23 and the Ventura Freeway in Thousand Oaks.

Of those proposals, only the Lewis Road plan was submitted by state Sen. Jack O’Connell (D-San Luis Obispo), who represents a large portion of Ventura County.

“In a sense I’m a little disappointed but I can’t say I’m surprised,” Gherardi said. “The governor’s office did not contact us [ahead of time]. It was kept closely guarded how they were doing it.”

Jackson submitted four proposals for Ventura, of which the California offramp was the one selected. The others included improvements to California 33 at Stanley Avenue, a new underpass to connect Johnson Drive to Leland Street and widening a freeway offramp at Victoria Avenue.

Gherardi said existing projects were not eligible under the new funding plan.

The total cost of the rejected projects was about $6 million. All but the Stanley Avenue project is already under construction and needs more funding, records show.

The $15 million to be set aside for the offramp project will be used to move the northbound California Street offramp one block south. Instead of being dumped onto a crowded intersection, cars will exit at less traveled Oak Street, where it intersects with Thompson Boulevard.

The project will be complete by 2005, according to the proposal.

As for the traffic study, $3 million will be spent doing a corridor analysis from California 23 to the Hollywood Freeway in North Hollywood. The plan would offer proposals for improving the stretch of freeway, one of the most congested in the state.

In addition to freeways, Amtrak in Ventura County will benefit from the new funding, according to spokeswoman Liz O’Donoghue.

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About $30 million has been set aside for two new trains to be used on the line running from San Diego through Ventura County to San Luis Obispo.

Those new trains will be more comfortable, offer smoother rides and bring to 13 the number of Amtrak trains that operate at stations in Ventura, Oxnard, Camarillo, Moorpark and Simi Valley, O’Donoghue said.

“This is significant for Amtrak and we hope it improves the ridership,” she said.

ROAD TRIP

The governor will tour the state touting his plan to pour billions into transportation projects. A3