Carpool Lane on 405 May Get $130 Million

Congress appears poised to appropriate $130 million to partially fund a carpool lane on the northbound San Diego Freeway between West Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley.

Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Valley Village), who spearheaded the effort to obtain the funds, said the money was included in a last-minute revision of the massive federal highway spending bill.

“We got a serious amount of money, which can now be leveraged to get this project up and going quickly,” Berman said in a telephone interview Thursday.

A House-Senate conference committee passed the bill Thursday evening, and the full House of Representatives was expected to vote on it Thursday night or this morning.

Berman conceded that the funds amount to only about one-fourth of the $500 million needed to build the 10-mile carpool lane.

As a result, a spokesman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said it was still not clear how soon the project could go forward and how much of the required state funding would be available.

Still, Berman described the conference bill as a victory for California.

He said the federal money, which can be spent only if the state also appropriates funds, would be enough to plan the carpool lanes, acquire private property along the route and begin construction.

Last month, Berman tussled with the Schwarzenegger administration over the project, which had been placed near the bottom of state and local transportation priority lists because of budget constraints.

At the time, Berman said the state needed to promise to begin construction within four years to receive the federal money. After two days of public wrangling, the governor agreed to push for $100 million in state funds for the project.

On Thursday, however, Schwarzenegger spokesman Vince Sollitto said that plan now faces more hurdles because Congress appeared ready to appropriate only $130 million of the $400 million Berman requested.

The state may have to decide to work on only a portion of the project or come up with more of its own money, he said.

“The state was very clear with Congressman Berman that were he to be able to secure the full federal share for the 405 HOV lane project -- as he indicated he could -- then [state and local transportation officials] would work to make sure the state’s share was there,” Sollitto said. “In light of today’s bill, the state will look to the region to determine its priorities.”

But Berman pointed out that if the state doesn’t use the money for the carpool lanes -- and begin construction before the highway bill expires in 2009 -- the funds will be lost.

“I cannot see the state of California saying, ‘Ho hum, so we lose $130 million,’ ” Berman said.