Oxnard Steps Up to Save 101 Work

Using $6 million of its own transportation dollars, the city of Oxnard is prepared to float a loan to save a major highway construction project from shutting down during one of the worst budget shortfalls in state history.

City officials voted this week to advance the California Department of Transportation the money needed for contractors to continue their work on the Ventura Freeway/Santa Clara River bridge project.

Caltrans officials told the City Council Tuesday the state had only enough money to pay the contractor for three or four weeks, said Cynthia Daniels, senior project coordinator in Oxnard’s transportation planning program.

Oxnard officials say they are acting in the city’s best interest to keep alive a project that is long overdue.

“This is an extraordinary situation,” Daniels said. “We don’t want this project to stop, so we’re willing to do whatever we can to help within reason.”

For years commuters have been asking for improvements on the often-congested road that runs from Ventura to Oxnard. State officials began the overhaul last year.

In addition to a four-lane bridge to carry traffic from Oxnard Boulevard -- which also serves as California 1 through Oxnard -- the project calls for improving a two-mile stretch of the Ventura Freeway from Vineyard Avenue to Johnson Drive and construction of a new six-lane bridge over the Santa Clara River.

When the overpass is completed, drivers will be able to access both northbound and southbound lanes of the freeway from Oxnard Boulevard.

Oxnard plans to pay the contractor on the state’s behalf in three $2-million installments beginning next month, Daniels said. The cost of the project is $100 million, of which Oxnard must pay about $14 million, she added. The project is expected to be completed in 2005 or 2006.

Oxnard officials are uncertain when their construction loans would be repaid.

Borrowing local dollars for state capital projects is the latest stopgap measure for Caltrans officials, who are faced with shutting down hundreds of highway construction projects. Last Thursday Caltrans officials stayed up all night trying to find the money to pay for more than $6 billion worth of road and bridge projects that have been approved or are underway.

“You can categorize this as an 11th-hour save,” Caltrans spokesman Dennis Trujillo said. “Because of the budget impasse, we knew we couldn’t last long. We’ve worked tirelessly just trying to come up with a solution.”

Already, at least 20 projects have been suspended indefinitely, and the department is mostly working on a week-by-week basis, Trujillo said.

If the state’s highway projects were shut down, Trujillo said, it would cost about $100 million to complete the closures.