MTA Scales Back Projects

Struggling to cope with the state budget crunch and a lack of federal assistance, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority pared its construction wish list on Thursday while shifting money from San Gabriel Valley train projects into a fund for an East Los Angeles light railway.

At the first meeting of the MTA board since the mechanics strike that shut down countywide bus and train service for 35 days, the agency dealt immediately with the potential fallout from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s bid to cut further into transportation funding.

Agency officials estimate that the plan Schwarzenegger proposed last week could cost Los Angeles County $240 million in transportation funding through 2005. Those cuts would be in addition to reductions approved this year by former Gov. Gray Davis and expected to cost the MTA $425 million by summer.

Anticipating less money and responding to a request by state officials, the MTA board cut back the number of traffic-busting freeway improvements it wants funded to six new projects costing $200 million. Earlier the agency had a list of 45 projects worth at least $410 million.

The six remaining construction projects include three carpool-lane upgrades: on the San Diego Freeway near Westwood, the Golden State Freeway near Mission Hills and California 14 in Palmdale; improvements to the Marina Freeway at Culver Boulevard near the Playa Vista housing development; a new lane connecting the San Diego Freeway and the Ventura Freeway in Sherman Oaks; and straightening the Santa Ana Freeway in downtown L.A.

“There’s a lot that we just can’t get to right now,” said David Yale, the MTA regional planning director.

In the meantime, the MTA is trying to move forward with its two largest construction projects: a 14-mile busway in the San Fernando Valley that is already being built, and a six-mile East Los Angeles light railway, for which the design and engineering plans are mostly done but is awaiting a $500-million federal construction grant.

Bidding to keep that project on track, the board moved Thursday to shift $21 million from other projects: $10 million that had been budgeted for engineering work on a planned Gold Line extension from Pasadena to Claremont; and $11 million from the Alameda Corridor East project that had been allotted to improve rail tracks between downtown Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley.

The moves were deemed necessary because the MTA fared dismally during Washington’s budget process last month. Congress decided against approving any money this year for the nearly $1-billion East Los Angeles railway.