Budget Delay Could Postpone Improvements to Interchange

A state transportation official said Wednesday that a $312-million freeway project designed to relieve gridlock at the interchange of the Riverside and Pomona freeways could be shelved for years if the Legislature doesn’t finalize a budget within a month.

“If there is no budget, the likelihood of funding for the interchange is not likely,” said Anne Mayer, Gov. Gray Davis’ appointee to the Riverside County Transportation Commission and head of Caltrans in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Most of the project, a massive cloverleaf-like interchange and other improvements that have been in the works for more than a decade, will be funded by state bonds issued next year. However, there is a $35-million shortfall, and if additional funding is not provided to make up the difference, the project would be delayed for two or three years.

The Riverside County transportation commission is lending the project $7.5 million, and Caltrans has contributed $1 million, but that still leaves a $26.5-million gap.

The commission is looking to the California Transportation Commission to make up the difference. The panel, which has limited funds that must be spread among transportation projects statewide, is scheduled to vote on the request at its August meeting. But if a state budget is not in place, the state won’t be able to finance existing road projects, much less start new ones, officials said.

State lawmakers, who continue to debate the $38-billion budget gap, failed to approve a spending plan before the mandated July 1 deadline. It’s unclear how much longer the budget impasse will continue, but if there is no spending plan in place by mid-August, Mayer said the interchange project could be delayed.

That would be troublesome for the region, because the interchange is viewed as vital to ease the growing traffic in the Inland Empire, said Eric Haley, the county transportation commission’s executive director. And if the project is put on hold for a couple of years, tens of millions of dollars in preliminary work will have been wasted, he said.

“It will be a nightmare if this project is mothballed,” Haley said.

Still, commission officials are optimistic that if there is money to give, the interchange project stands a decent chance of receiving state funding. Haley said that the importance of the project has been noted by Caltrans Director Jeff Morales when discussing budget concerns, and said county transportation officials were warmly received by the state commission in Santa Ana this month.

In addition to building a cloverleaf-like interchange, the number of lanes on the freeways would be increased to five, carpool lanes would be extended, and a truck bypass would be built on the southbound Riverside Freeway.

According to Caltrans, this will allow the freeways to accommodate 250,000 vehicles a day by 2020. The interchange currently handles about 100,000 vehicles.