A.V. TOLL-ROAD BILL DIES IN ASSEMBLY KNIGHT VOWS TO RESUBMIT PROPOSAL.

Byline: Chuck Mueller Staff Writer

An Assembly committee has killed a bill that would have started the wheels rolling for a toll road between Palmdale and Victorville.

By a 10-7 vote, the Assembly Transportation Committee has defeated a measure that won unanimous approval last month by the Senate Transportation Committee. State Sen. W.J. ``Pete'' Knight, R-Palmdale, who introduced the bill in April, said he will keep the effort alive.

``Hopefully, it will be returned to the Assembly committee before the July 11 deadline,'' said David Orosco, Knight's spokesman.

Senate Bill 138 authorizes the California Department of Transportation to enter into a contract to build a toll highway as part of the long-envisioned High Desert corridor. Under the plan, the route would be built a few miles north of and parallel to Highway 138.

``The corridor is the only realistic long-term solution to saving lives and fixing the unsafe driving conditions between the Antelope and Victor valleys,'' Knight said.

He blamed last week's committee defeat on uncertainties in the long process of developing and financing a toll highway.

``The economics of toll roads (and) various governmental steps involved with this project ... were all lost on this committee,'' Knight said.

Under the proposal, the corridor would connect Palmdale and Lancaster with Apple Valley, Victorville and Adelanto.

``An increasing number of motorists are using Highway 138 as a commute path between larger metropolitan areas,'' Knight said. ``SB 138 would provide an alternative to avoid Highway 138 altogether.''

San Bernardino Associated Governments is also looking at alternative routes between the Antelope and Victor valleys.

Directors of the associated governments have approved $15 million in regional improvement funds to upgrade Highway 138 in San Bernardino County. The money would be added to $40 million already allocated for Highway 138 improvements.

An environmental impact report is required before a precise route for a High Desert corridor is established, said Deborah Barmack, director of management services for the associated governments.

However, the most likely route would link Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville with Palmdale Airport.

Costs of alternative plans range from $1.09 billion to $1.5 billion.

City Councilman Mike Rothschild of Victorville questioned the need for toll highways, nothing the ``extraordinary'' amount of tax dollars received by California for road construction.

In a national ranking of dangerous roadways, Reader's Digest in November 2000 named the section of Highway 138 between Interstate 15 and Palmdale the ``Highway of Death'' because of the many fatal crashes that have occurred there. It was the only California highway on the magazine's national list.

In a single year - 2002 - 4.6 deaths per mile were recorded on the two-lane highway. Only 4.4 deaths per mile were recorded on the San Bernardino County leg of I-15 over an 11-year period beginning in 1991.

Between 1993 and 1997, 16 people were killed on an eight-mile stretch of Highway 138. Ten of the crashes were head-on.

Part of the danger is that the highway has no center divider. It is also heavily used by truck drivers to get from I-15 to the Antelope Valley.

One section of the highway in Phelan is adorned by crosses put there in memory of those killed on the highway.

On June 25, a head-on collision on Highway 138 west of I-15 killed Los Angeles police Detective Abiel Barron and critically injured his partner, Andrew Teague.

Barron, 49, was driving their unmarked silver 2000 Ford Crown Victoria east when it was was hit head-on by a westbound full-size Chevrolet pickup, officials said. The detectives were en route to Las Vegas to investigate a homicide.