Ventura County Seeks to Issue Bonds for Roadwork Near Cal State Campus

Ventura County officials are seeking to fast-track a $33-million road-widening project considered vital to the future development of Cal State Channel Islands.

Under a proposal before the California Transportation Commission, county transportation officials want to sell $23 million in bonds to widen Lewis Road, the main route to the campus near Camarillo, from two lanes to four.

That project has been delayed for years by state budget cuts and wasn’t expected to start until at least 2009.

But county transportation officials have come up with a plan to start the widening work this summer, on the promise that the state would reimburse the cost in fiscal year 2010-11. The state commission is set to vote on the proposal next month.

“It really is a self-help package,” said Ventura County Supervisor Kathy Long, who helped craft the financing deal. “For the safety of folks who travel that road, this project just couldn’t wait.”

County and university officials have pushed for years to improve the road between Camarillo and the Cal State campus, a 3.2-mile stretch surrounded by farmland and bordered by irrigation ditches.

Local officials learned in late 2003 that state funding earmarked for the widening had been suspended by lawmakers trying to close a budget shortfall. The news came months before the project was scheduled to start and set off a search for alternatives.

One potential remedy disappeared last fall, when county voters rejected a sales tax increase aimed at jump-starting long-delayed road improvement projects, including the widening of Lewis Road.

With enrollment projected to reach 15,000 full-time students by 2025, university officials have made the project a top priority. Already, the university has paid $5.8 million toward design work and recently committed another $300,000 to help cover debt service on the bonds.

University President Richard Rush said the improvements can’t come quickly enough, noting that there have been 26 accidents on Lewis Road -- five near the entrance to the campus -- in the last two years.