CAR-POOL LANES ARE SCUTTLED TRANSPORTATION PANEL DROPS FREEWAY PROJECT.Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer PALMDALE - A $33 million project to add 6.2 miles of car-pool lanes to the Antelope Valley Freeway The Antelope Valley Freeway is a freeway in Los Angeles and Kern counties in southern California. It is signed as California State Highway 14 along its length. It connects Greater Los Angeles to the rapidly developing Antelope Valley. will be delayed at least a year after state transportation officials shot down a bond financing plan. The project, which would add a car-pool lane in each direction between Avenue P-8 and Pearblossom Highway, was omitted by the California Transportation Commission from a $90 million list of projects included in a bond financing plan. ``I was absolutely devastated dev·as·tate tr.v. dev·as·tat·ed, dev·as·tat·ing, dev·as·tates 1. To lay waste; destroy. 2. To overwhelm; confound; stun: was devastated by the rude remark. ,'' said Lancaster Mayor Frank Roberts Frank Roberts may refer to:
The Antelope Valley Freeway lanes are at the top of the MTA's priority list as it searches for funding, Roberts said. Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich, also an MTA (1) (Message Transfer Agent or Mail Transfer Agent) The store and forward part of a messaging system. See messaging system. (2) See M Technology Association. 1. (messaging) MTA - Message Transfer Agent. board member, will try to get the project moving, an aide said. ``He's extremely upset,'' said Antonovich's transportation aide, Rosa Fuquay. ``He'll be speaking with the MTA and Caltrans to push for funding. This is a ready-to-go project.'' < The MTA had proposed using bonds called Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicle Bonds to finance the project. The bonds are issued by the state and backed by the annual aid received from the federal government. The project could be resubmitted for that type of financing next year, said David Yale, MTA's director of regional programming. The other possibility for funding is to pull money allocated to projects that are ready to go to bid, but do not have enough money programmed to allow the work to go forward, Yale said. Had the freeway widening been funded, the state Department of Transportation was looking at starting construction in early 2004. The project was to be completed by late 2006, Caltrans officials said. Completing the widening of the Antelope Valley Freeway is among regional officials' top transportation priorities, second only to a $184 million project to widen wid·en tr. & intr.v. wid·ened, wid·en·ing, wid·ens To make or become wide or wider. wid  en·er n. Highway 138. The car-pool lane project
would help ease a bottleneck A lessening of throughput. It often refers to networks that are overloaded, which is caused by the inability of the hardware and transmission lines to support the traffic. It can also refer to a mismatch inside the computer where slower-speed peripheral buses and devices prevent the CPU where the freeway south of Palmdale is
reduced to just two lanes in each direction.
The car-pool lane construction had been dropped then reinstated by the MTA already this year. It was one of about 140 projects the MTA board dropped from a draft version of the agency's short-range transportation plan in a budget-cutting move. The board reinstated the project in the final version of the plan, but included a proviso A condition, stipulation, or limitation inserted in a document. A condition or a provision in a deed, lease, mortgage, or contract, the performance or non-performance of which affects the validity of the instrument. It generally begins with the word provided. that a funding source had to be found. That is when MTA staff came up with the idea of using bond financing for several projects, including the car-pool lane project. Jim Skeen, (661) 267-5743 james.skeen(at)dailynews.com |
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