When the Governor gave his "I say build it" State of the State address, at least one legislator in that chamber apparently took those words to heart.
Senator George Runner (R-Lancaster), by introducing Senate Bill 1812, proposes to streamline the planning and environmental review process for Highways like State Route 138, which runs through San Bernardino County’s High Desert communities of Phelan and Pinon Hills and on into Palmdale in Los Angeles County. That particular highway is among Southern California’s most picturesque and unfortunately dangerous routes for everyone from skiers to truckers. Read about it here and here.
The fact that SB 1812 has moved out of the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee is big news for the hundreds of thousands of motorists who routinely brave the blind curves, dips and scarce passing lanes that characterize one of the state’s deadliest highways.
The safety projects currently proposed for Highway 138 aren’t massive federally funded new construction. They’re improvements like truck-climbing lanes, passing lanes, straightening for safer sight distances and the like, and a longer-term widening project. But one phase of safety upgrades, east of Interstate 15, has already been delayed by CalTrans due to budget shortfalls elsewhere. This delay only adds to an untenable situation from a safety standpoint.
Runner’s bill, if approved by the Appropriations Committee and ultimately signed into law, would delegate federal approvals for environmental reviews to CalTrans under a federal pilot program (under the SAFETEA-LU authorization) targeted at five states over a six-year period. Runner estimates that as a result, projects like those pending on Highway 138 could be expedited by as much as six months.
Senator Runner’s bill represents a small but important step toward what’s so badly needed from this state’s government when it comes to addressing its crumbling infrastructure, not to mention accommodating millions of new residents.
When it comes to transportation between the Antelope and Victor Valleys, the long-term solution will include a major new expressway from Palmdale to Apple Valley. But that remains at least 7 to 18 years and a couple of billion dollars away from becoming a reality. The real answer, which gets to the heart of matter in the short term and the long term, is to streamline bureaucracy, thereby targeting finite resources for critical infrastructure. The result will save lives and improve our quality of life.
As Senator Runner’s bill says, Just Build It.