Widening of SR76 east of 15 reduced

The revisions from the draft 2007 Regional Transportation Plan will eliminate part of the widening of State Route 76 east of Interstate 15 in the RTP’s unconstrained revenue plan, but the revisions approved November 9 by the San Diego Association of Governments board also call for a future study for Highway 76 east of Interstate 15.

“It’s a process that we went through to try to achieve a goal,” said Pala Indian Reservation tribal chair Robert Smith, who is also the chair of the Southern California Tribal Chairmen’s Association and the SCTCA’s advisory member on the SANDAG board.

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 as well as an unconstrained needs 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. SANDAG is expected to adopt the final plan at its November 30 board meeting.

When SANDAG released the draft RTP for public comment in June, the unconstrained needs network included widening Highway 76 to six lanes between Interstate 15 and the Pala Indian Reservation and to four lanes from the Pala reservation to the La Jolla Indian Reservation.

The County of San Diego’s General Plan 2020 planning effort seeks lower density in rural areas, and SANDAG staff met with County of San Diego staff and the Endangered Habitats League. That meeting resulted in a revision of the unconstrained needs network to delete widening of State Route 76 and of State Route 94 in Jamul.

SANDAG senior planner Heather Werdick acknowledged the capacity needs for those roads. “Traffic is becoming more and more an issue on those rural highways,” she said.

The initial unconstrained network called for widening Highway 94 to four lanes east to Otay Lakes Road, but the revision will leave the facility as two lanes east of Steele Canyon Road. The Highway 76 revision in the unconstrained needs network seeks four lanes from I-15 to Couser Canyon and two lanes east of Couser Canyon.

“It didn’t get completely eliminated. We just cut back on how far east we were going,” Werdick said.

Since the widening of Highway 76 east of Interstate 15 was not in the revenue-constrained plan or the reasonably expected revenue scenario, the cutback has little impact. “It’s only in the unconstrained plan,” Werdick said.

Since the plan itself added potential future studies of the Highway 76 corridor, along with potential future studies for State Route 78, freight movement through the Mid-City area in San Diego, and the coastal rail corridor including a possible Del Mar tunnel, the replacement of the extra lanes with the study may actually increase the chances of Highway 76 being widened. “The study would follow up on the needs and solutions for State Route 76 east of I-15,” Werdick said. “We want to make sure we get a realistic assessment of that.”

Although the study would require determination of the scope and a funding source, the study could be undertaken before the next RTP revision takes place in 2011. “We want to make sure it’s clearly identified that we need to evaluate that,” Werdick said.

Ironically, debate over another state highway may support the need to widen Highway 76 and other two-lane roads. The widening of State Route 67 from two lanes to four between Lakeside and Ramona was in the reasonably expected revenue scenario in the 2003 update, a scenario whose funding assumed the passage of the TransNet sales tax extension which occurred in November 2004. The widening of Highway 67 was not in the 2006 update, which was a technical update required to comply with Federal law and only covered the revenue-constrained plan, and in the 2007 update the Highway 67 work was still in the reasonably expected revenue scenario, which now exceeds the revenue-constrained scenario by $16.6 billion without an identified source for $11 billion of that funding.

One of the public comments, submitted in April 2007, was from the Lakeside Disaster Preparedness Committee. Nearly six months prior to the mandatory evacuation notice for the entirety of Ramona, the Lakeside Disaster Preparedness Committee proclaimed the necessity of the widening of Highway 67 in case of a future disaster requiring evacuations.

Although Highway 67 was not put into the revenue-constrained plan, San Diego City Council member Jim Madaffer noted that the Witch Fire vindicated the Lakeside Disaster Preparedness Committee comment. “State Route 67 was backed up beyond belief,” he said.

Some Ramona residents cited a three-hour wait during the evacuation process, and residents in Ramona and other communities have noted that waiting out an evacuation order until after the road is clear may be preferable to following the evacuation notice.

SANDAG will work with the California Department of Transportation, the County of San Diego, environmental groups, and tribal nations to evaluate transportation needs and solutions on Highway 76 east of Interstate 15.

The revenue-constrained scenario was revised from $40.6 billion to $40.8 billion due to developer contributions on State Routes 56 and 905 as well as additional private investment on the State Route 241 toll road between Orange County and Interstate 5 which would go through part of Camp Pendleton. In addition to Highway 241, the widening of State Route 76 between Melrose Drive and Interstate 15 is in the revenue-constrained scenario. The reasonably-expected revenue scenario includes toll lanes on the county’s northernmost parts of Interstate 5 and Interstate 15 to build additional lanes on those freeways.