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46-101 Road Upgrade Stalled: Caltrans Shortfall Will Delay Possible Paso Robles Interchange and Hwy. 101 Lane Options in South County

Posted on: Friday, 30 December 2005, 15:00 CST

By Bob Cuddy, The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, Calif., The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Dec. 30--A shortage of money has forced Caltrans to put off a study that could have led to a raised interchange at Highway 101 and 46 East, although the organization still has several projects working around the intersection and elsewhere on Highway 46.

Caltrans also has had to retreat from a study of auxiliary lanes along Highway 101 in the South County, which it had planned to work on with the San Luis Obispo Council of Governments.

Caltrans will focus on more immediate work instead, said Colin Jones, a spokesman for the agency's District 5, which includes San Luis Obispo County. He said Highway 46 is "an important, growing east-west corridor."

Traffic has been increasing for two decades at the 101-46 intersection. In 1984, according to Jones, 25,000 vehicles used the interchange daily. By 1994 that had risen to 42,000 daily and in 2004 the daily count was 58,000 vehicles.

A flyover -- a short, ramp-like section of highway -- would route traffic over the freeway and merge motorists onto 101 without them meeting cross traffic. Vehicles now have to go through stop signs or stoplights.

The flyover was one alternative in the study and by no means a certainty, Jones said.

Other alternatives would have examined widening ramps and reconfiguring the interchanges. Jones said he had no dollar figure on the study.

Paso Robles Mayor Frank Mecham said Thursday he was not familiar with Caltrans' plan to hold off on the study and declined to comment until he looked into it further.

In a letter to Caltrans, SLOCOG called the study premature and costly and said "other, higher priority needs exist in the county … where limited Caltrans staff resources would be better served."

Before financing a "major interchange reconstruction," SLOCOG President Shirley Bianchi wrote, the council would like interim improvements to be completed.

Among those are finishing projects now underway at or near the Highway 101-Highway 46 interchange, including:

-- Highway 46 widening east of Airport Road. The road eventually will be widened to four lanes for 23 miles to the "Y" in Cholame where Highways 41 and 46 come together. Construction on the first six-mile stretch of the project will begin in 2007.

-- A Highway 46-Airport Road study to improve the intersection and extend it south.

-- A Highway 46 corridor study from Highway 101 to Jardine Road, to identify what improvements are needed for that area.

SLOCOG also objected to Caltrans pulling away from its commitment to pay half the $16 million cost of building eight miles of auxiliary lanes on Highway 101 in South County. Jones said Caltrans simply doesn't have the money. The lanes would go from Shell Beach to Arroyo Grande.

"We still strongly support the project with SLOCOG but need to wait for the next … funding cycle in 2007-08," Jones said.

If Caltrans does not come up with the money, SLOCOG staff will ask its board of directors to fund the $16 million and try to get it back from Caltrans later, according to James Worthley, South County planner for SLOCOG.

Both organizations are working to line up funding and assign priorities for road projects in the coming year.

"We're just trying to juggle everything right now," said Steve Devencenzi, deputy director of SLOCOG.

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Tribune (San Luis Obispo, Calif.)

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