Road Work Ahead in San Diego

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published February 14, 2007 at 1:57 PM PST

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

San Diego commuters will see road works springing up in several new locations this year, as Caltrans pumps more money into freeways around the County. Plus, the race to keep up with rapidly increasing

San Diego commuters will see road works springing up in several new locations this year, as Caltrans pumps more money into freeways around the County. Plus, the race to keep up with rapidly increasing traffic will pick up next year as new state bond money kicks in. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more from Caltrans' annual transportation update.

The road works at the 5/805 merge will be gone this summer, as Caltrans completes that stretch and moves its widening project north to Via del la Valle and south to La Jolla. On I-15, two new lanes will open between 56 and north of Lake Hodges, and for those heading east, the extension of Highway 52 into Santee should break ground this summer.

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Down south, San Diego's first toll road, the 125 South Bay Expressway opens later this year and work may start on 905 to the border next year. Caltrans’ District Director Pedre Orso Delgado says the Transnet sales tax has doubled the money invested in freeways.

Orso: This year we are averaging anywhere around $20 million a month, but the following year we will be hitting close to $30 million to maybe even $40 million a month.

That's when state Propositions A and B kick in, sending half a billion dollars to San Diego to keep paving new roads. Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.