MORE MILES OF CAR-POOL LANES FOR I-5 TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION APPROVES STATEWIDE PLAN.Byline: TROY ANDERSON Staff Writer Despite soaring gas prices, the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. got some good news Friday: Three more miles of car-pool lanes will be built on Interstate 5. The California Transportation Commission approved spending $38 million for the Valley project as part of a five-year, $5.18 billion statewide plan. Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County will get $55 million in new allocations and a total of $967 million over the next five years. ``It's long overdue,'' said David Fleming
David Fleming , who chairs the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley and sits on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board. ``It's been a real tragedy that so little has been devoted to transportation and highway improvements in the last few years. ``We have $300 billion in infrastructure in the county, a lot of it is decaying and it's high time we finally play catch-up,'' said Fleming, a former member of the CTC CTC - Cornell Theory Center . The new funding will pay for car-pool lanes on the Golden State Freeway The Golden State Freeway is a north-south freeway running through Kern County and Los Angeles County, California. Originally built as U.S. Highway 99, it was re-signed as Interstate 5 in 1964. between the Hollywood and Ronald Reagan freeways. Funding was previously approved for car-pool lanes on I-5 from the Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley to the 118 freeways. Under the five-year plan Five-Year Plan, Soviet economic practice of planning to augment agricultural and industrial output by designated quotas for a limited period of usually five years. approved by the commission, the county also received $315 million for the Exposition Rail Transit Project. ``With this funding, we are one step closer to breaking ground on the Expo Line
The Expo Line ,'' said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who chairs the 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. Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, also an MTA board member, said the rail project has the potential to relieve some of the heavy traffic on the Santa Monica Freeway The Santa Monica Freeway is the westernmost segment of Interstate 10, beginning at the western terminus of I-10 at the Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica, California and ending southeast of downtown Los Angeles at the famous East Los Angeles Interchange. . ``This is great news for the region,'' he said. Construction on the $640 million rail line along I-10 is expected to start this summer. But some said the county came up short in new transportation funding, which uses a formula set by the Legislature to dole out transit funds based on county population and state highway miles. ``When you look at San Diego County, they got several projects in the multimillion-dollar range,'' said Michael Cano, transportation deputy to Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich Michael Dennis Antonovich (born 1939 in Los Angeles, California) is a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors representing the Fifth District, which covers northern Los Angeles County, the Antelope, Santa Clarita, Pasadena, and parts of the San Fernando and San . ``Los Angeles County did not do very well in that allocation. In general, when we get funding by formula, the county does not get its fair share.'' San Diego County, the sixth-largest county in the nation, will receive $81 million in new funding - $26 million more than the nation's largest county. ``Los Angeles County has done pretty well in the past,'' said David Brewer, chief deputy director of the CTC. ``They have gotten ahead of the game. This is just evening it out. If you spread state money around on a population basis, the rural areas wouldn't have decent transportation or roads.'' Statewide, the commission's 2006 State Transportation Improvement Program includes $3.8 billion for highways and roads, $1 billion for rail and public transit and $350 million for transportation enhancements such as pedestrian and bike facilities, landscaping and rehabilitation of historic buildings. For the first time, the plan introduces a discipline of accounting that makes transportation planning and expenditures performance-driven. Caltrans and regional planning agencies will use performance measures to identify the most essential projects that will deliver the ``most bang for the buck,'' said Caltrans Director Will Kempton. The commission also approved $16 million to add car-pool lanes on the San Bernardino Freeway The San Bernardino Freeway is the assigned name of an approximately 60-mile (95 km) long segment of Interstate 10 (I-10) between the cities of Los Angeles, California and San Bernardino, California. from the 605 Freeway to Highway 57 over Kellogg Hill on the eastern edge of the county. ``The (car-pool) lanes stop at the county border,'' Knabe said. ``That really jams things up. So this is good news.'' Still, several officials said that unless voters approve major infrastructure bonds the funds available for the five-year plan will be limited. ``It's good that they are starting to make these dollars flow again,'' MTA board member and county Supervisor Don Knabe said. ``I know we have significantly more than $55 million in project needs, but we never expect to get all our projects funded. ``The bottom line is this shows the competitive nature of obtaining transportation dollars. That's why I hope (state officials) can come together on some of these infrastructure bonds and get them on the ballot.'' troy.anderson@dailynews.com (213) 974-8985 CAPTION(S): map Map: $38 million car-pool lane project |
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