Hwy 76 project (west of I-15) remains high-priority item

The San Diego Association of Governments board accepted a revenue-constrained plan and a reasonably-expected revenue scenario for its draft 2007 Regional Transportation Plan.

The 17-2 vote April 27 approved a $40.6 billion revenue-constrained plan and an additional $10 billion investment for reasonably-expected revenue projects split evenly between roads and transit. The scenarios will be used in developing the draft Regional Transportation Plan which will cover transportation in the county through 2030. The actual draft RTP will be released in June for public review with adoption of the final RTP expected in November. A draft Environmental Impact Report of the RTP is expected to be released in July.

“We don’t have a lot of money to do everything,” said San Diego City Council member Jim Madaffer, who is one of that city’s two representatives on the SANDAG board. “We need to take care of local streets and roads, we need to take care of highways, and yes, we need to take care of transit.”

The Regional Transportation Plan covers highway, transit, and other transportation items through the year 2030. It includes a revenue-constrained plan and a reasonably-expected revenue scenario; the revenue-constrained plan is required by Federal law and does not assume any anticipated future revenues while the reasonably-expected revenue scenario assumes that historical increases will continue. The RTP had been updated in 2003, and a technical update required to comply with Federal law was approved in 2006, although that update only covered the revenue-constrained plan and the 2007 update will be more comprehensive.

“This is a long-range plan that takes us out to 2030,” said SANDAG executive director Gary Gallegos.

The SANDAG board had considered two investment level options for the reasonably-expected revenue scenario; one would increase the investment by approximately $4 billion, including $2 billion on transit, while the other would increase investment by $10 billion. That $10 billion investment had three alternatives, one spending $5 billion apiece on roads and on transit, one spending the entire $10 billion on roads, and one spending the entire $10 billion on transit. The enhanced transit services would be concentrated in the county’s urban core.

The 2003 RTP assumed the extension of the TransNet sales tax, which was approved by the county’s voters in November 2004, along with additional state and Federal gas taxes and other discretionary revenue as the funding for projects in the reasonably-expected revenue scenario. Rising project costs and lower-than-expected state and Federal revenues caused many projects in the 2003 reasonably-expected revenue scenario not to be included in the 2007 revenue-constrained plan despite the passage of TransNet.

Gallegos blames the shortfall on recent increases in the cost of construction which have exceeded historical rates. “That was not something that anybody could have anticipated,” he said. “Over time we expect and hope that this spike will come down.”

Other than the possibility of toll roads for additional freeway lanes, no specific funding sources have been identified to produce the reasonably-expected revenue scenario’s level of funding. SANDAG staff will be working with the SANDAG board and transportation committee to identify potential revenue sources to fund the reasonably-expected revenue scenario investment.

An unconstrained network plan includes all desired projects, and evaluation criteria was used to place some of those projects onto the revenue-constrained and reasonably-expected revenue lists. The Regional Transportation Plan includes private investments, and those privately-funded toll facilities were not subject to the priority rankings. Projects already under construction or environmentally cleared were also not ranked.

The private toll roads in the plan include State Route 241 from Orange County to Interstate 5, which will likely cross a portion of Camp Pendleton. The 2007 draft revenue-constrained scenario includes $536 million for that road, consisting of $150 million for the portion between Orange County and Christianitos Road and another $386 million to extend the toll road to Interstate 5.

Following the passage of the TransNet extension, SANDAG was able to use that anticipated revenue and issue bonds for an Early Action Program. The Early Action Program will provide funding for projects either promised in the original TransNet measure approved in 1987 and not yet completed or which are expected to be ready in time for the early funding. Since the widening of Highway 76 between Interstate 5 and Interstate 15 was promised in the 1987 TransNet measure, the widening portion between

Melrose Drive in Oceanside and I-15 was designated as an early action project.

The inclusion of all early action projects in the revenue-constrained scenario provided the Highway 76 widening with a place in the revenue-constrained plan despite a ranking which would otherwise relegate it to the bottom of the reasonably-expected revenue scenario. The $260 million for the widening from two lanes to six between Melrose Drive and Mission Road was ranked 35th among 52 projects in the unconstrained network while the $140 million to widen the segment between Mission Road and I-15 from two lanes to four was ranked 36th.

The widening of Highway 76 east of I-15 ranked at the bottom of the list; the $200 million to expand the road from two lanes to four and six lanes between I-15 and Pala Mission Road ranked 51st while the $980 million to widen State Route 76 between

Pala Mission Road and the La Jolla Indian Reservation from two lanes to four ranked last among the 52 projects. The $180 million to widen Highway 76 between I-5 and Melrose Drive from four lanes to six was ranked 40th. None of those three projects were included in the alternative which would have spent the entire additional $10 billion on roads.

Although the addition of four toll lanes on Interstate 15 between State Route 78 and the Riverside County line ranked eighth, the only non-private road project not on the Early Action Program to be included in the revenue-constrained scenario was the $450 million widening of Interstate 5 in San Diego between Interstate 8 and La Jolla Village Drive. (The revenue-constrained plan also includes $20 million of Department of Defense funding for preliminary engineering of a tunnel for North Island Naval Air Station traffic which would bypass residential streets in Coronado.) The addition of four toll lanes on

Interstate 5 between State Route 76 and the Orange County line ranked 44th. The I-15 toll lanes would cost $2.06 billion while the I-5 toll lanes would cost $810 million. Both toll projects are in the draft reasonably-expected revenue scenario.

“Staff is recommending that tolls be one of the options,” Gallegos said. “Whatever capacity you would add would be toll lanes.”

Supervisor Ron Roberts, who is one of two County of San Diego representatives on the SANDAG board, voted for the plan despite his opposition to the toll lanes. “I don’t support the toll lanes north of Escondido and north of Oceanside,” he said.

Roberts suggested that toll roads for other projects would allow additional funding for projects not on the list. “Why don’t we take a number of these other things?” he said.

Supervisor Bill Horn, the County of San Diego’s other SANDAG representative, suggested a new north-south road which would consist entirely of toll lanes. “I think we ought to build a third freeway,” he said.

The $4 billion investment option for the reasonably-expected revenue scenario would not have included extending the bus rapid transit line along I-15 from Escondido to Temecula, but the $10 billion option split between roads and transit includes extending that line to Temecula. The revenue-constrained scenario includes the portion between Escondido and the Sorrento Mesa area of San Diego but only for peak hours.

Other than the bus line between Escondido and Temecula, even the option spending the entire $10 billion on transit does not include any unincorporated communities other than Spring Valley, Bonita, and Otay Mesa, nor does it restore bus service to the industrial Woodside Avenue area of Santee which was eliminated in March.

Kathy Keehan of the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition noted the need for other non-automotive options. “It’s transit, but it’s also smart growth. It’s also bike and pedestrian projects,” she said.

Keehan is also a member of the Regional Transportation Plan’s Stakeholder’s Working Group, as is Valley Center resident Larry Glavinic. “Perhaps the plan ought to be renamed the gridlock avoidance plan,” Glavinic said. “This plan is based on 19th-century technology.”

Glavinic urged the dedication of a portion of Regional Transportation Plan expenditures on new technologies. “What we need is some 21st-century solutions,” he said. “San Diego needs to be a leader, not a follower.”