Where should the money go?
The state's transportation commission meets Feb. 20 to look at all the request for money from the voter-approved $20 billion Proposition 1B. Surprise! Dan Weintraub reports there are many more requests than money:
The proposed projects include car pool lanes and new interchanges, road and bridge widenings, a new tunnel and a few entirely new stretches of highway. The most expensive single request is for $831 million to add car pool lanes and other improvements to a 26-mile stretch of Interstate 5 in north San Diego County between La Jolla and Oceanside. But only the first phase of that project, at a cost of $146 million, has the support of Caltrans. The biggest request Caltrans is backing is $730 million to build a car pool lane on northbound Interstate 405, from Interstate 10 near Los Angeles International Airport to U.S. 101 in the San Fernando Valley.
Not all the money will go to fixing road and building new ones, Dan says: "Caltrans has recommended setting aside $150 million in the first allocation for technology, from ramp metering to sensors that measure the flow of traffic along a stretch of freeway."
