OFFICIALS LAUD MTA ACTION TO WIDEN ROAD.

Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer

North Los Angeles County leaders are praising a recommendation by an MTA committee to fund a $54.5 million project to widen Highway 138 between 165th Street East and Highway 18.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority's planning and programming committee recommended the project be funded through the state's Interregional Transportation Improvement Program. The MTA's board is expected to consider the project when it finalizes the ITIP funding priorities at its meeting Thursday.

``These preliminary recommendations are essential in order for the expansion of Highway 138 to move forward,'' said Assemblyman George Runner, R-Lancaster, who has lobbied for expansion money. ``The next step is to ensure that the funding is approved by the full board of the MTA in order to receive state funds.''

The money would allow the two-lane stretch to be expanded to four lanes.

Antelope Valley officials long have wanted Highway 138 widened. And attention on the east-west route has intensified following a series of crashes in August that left three people dead and nine injured.

``Ongoing safety concerns as well as increased traffic on this vital artery make upgrades necessary,'' said county Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, whose district includes the Los Angeles County portions of the highway.

The State Transportation Improvement Plan has $38.5 million earmarked for widening the predominantly two-lane highway to four lanes between Avenue T and 165th Street East. Caltrans hopes to begin construction in February 2002, and to have the work completed two years after that.

While the environmental impact report is being drafted, a project report also will be prepared that will have firmer cost estimates on the work. That will tell Caltrans how far eastward from Avenue T it will be able to expand the highway. The goal is to reach the Big Rock Wash (near 165th Street East).

In 1993, Caltrans widened a 1-1/2-mile stretch of Highway 138 from one mile west of Little Rock Creek Bridge to 77th Street East.

That same year, another 1-1/2-mile stretch from just west of 106th Street East to just west of 128th Street East was widened with the addition of passing lanes in each direction and the addition of a 12-foot-wide left-turn median through Pearblossom.

The two-lane highway carries more than 21,000 vehicles a day and is the Antelope Valley's main link to San Bernardino County.