Funding OK’D for Valley Blvd. Plan

By Stephen Wall, San Bernardino County Sun, Calif.

Sep. 23–COLTON — Your long commute home just got longer.

Tired of bumper-to-bumper traffic on the 10 Freeway, you exit and head east on Valley Boulevard approaching La Cadena Drive.

Just when you think you’re home free, you hear the flashing lights and ringing bell warning that the arms are about to lower.

Another train has made your life miserable.

Local transportation officials feel your pain.

They have a plan to build a bridge or a tunnel to separate the railroad tracks from the street where vehicles and trains cross.

Valley is one of seven so-called railroad grade-separation projects that earlier this month got the green light for funding.

The others are in Ontario, San Bernardino, Grand Terrace and San Bernardino County.

Colton residents, business owners and visitors are accustomed to the delays.

About 100 trains per day blare their horns as they cross the tracks at Valley.

With global trade into the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach expected to double or triple in the next 20 years, the already jammed railroad crossing will only get more congested.

That means longer delays, more chemicals spewed into the air and a greater chance of accidents, officials say.

“When you have to stop with the car running, you’re causing more emissions,” Public Works Director Amer Jakher said. “You’re causing unhealthy air by stopping traffic all the time.”

There is also an increasing danger for pedestrians as new businesses locate downtown, Jakher said.

“As the downtown gets more and more busy, you’re have more and more people walking, and you’ll have more of a chance of a conflict between a train and a person,” Jakher said.

Recognizing the need for a solution, the San Bernardino Associated Governments’ board approved spending $15 million for preliminary design and environmental work for the seven crossings.

The money will come from Measure I, the county’s half-cent sales tax measure.

Cities will use their development fees to pay for part of the work.

Once the projects are designed and environmentally cleared, they will be ready to go to construction, probably about 2010 to 2012, officials said.

At that time, the projects could qualify for state transportation bond money.

Valley Boulevard ranks as one of the highest priorities, said Darren Kettle, director of freeway construction for San Bernardino Associated Governments, or Sanbag.

“Clearly, from a a major vehicular delay, safety and air-quality perspective, Valley Boulevard is one of the county’s most important projects for the purpose of mitigating impacts to the community,” Kettle said.

The length of time drivers have to wait at the crossing is expected to triple by 2030 if a grade separation is not built, Kettle said.

But he said completing Valley could be complicated because it requires property acquisition that could affect surrounding businesses.

Construction of the Valley project would probably take about two years, Kettle said.

Mayor Kelly Chastain said the bottleneck also can delay response times for emergency vehicles.

“This project is important for residents and emergency personnel because they need to get to their destinations in a timely manner,” Chastain said.

Merchants are also harmed by the delays, she said.

“If people have to sit a long time on Valley, they’re going to get tired of waiting and try alternate routes,” Chastain said. “They are going to go bypass Colton and keep going on the freeway and maybe go to Hospitality Lane. That’s going to hurt the businesses in downtown Colton.”

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