Caltrans District 11 won a competitive grant last week that will help fund the conversion of carpool lanes on Interstate 805 in the South Bay into high-occupancy toll lanes.
The project, which stretches from Palomar Street to State Route 94 and has been planned since at least 2011, will allow solo drivers to pay a toll to access the lanes. The toll amounts have not yet been set, but similar systems, such as the I-15 express lanes in North County, have tolls that fluctuate based on congestion. Carpoolers can typically access high-occupancy toll lanes without paying.
The $39.6 million grant came from the Solutions for Congested Corridors Program, which is funded by the state's gas tax and administered by the California Transportation Commission (CTC). The total project cost is estimated at $131 million and is expected to open by 2030.
Jeanie Ward-Waller, the interim executive director of Climate Plan, a statewide coalition of environmental organizations that supported the project, said the project would offer solo drivers a new way to opt out of congestion.
"The way we need to be going is more projects like this, that improve travel on our roadways without expanding them," Ward-Waller said. "Because, of course, expanding them makes traffic worse over the long term."
Caltrans District 11 spokesperson Steve Wellborn said revenue from the tolls would be invested in projects and services that reduce vehicle travel, such as the South Bay Rapid bus from Otay Mesa to downtown San Diego.
"This project will continue to create a modern, new transportation backbone along the Interstate 805 corridor that would meet the future needs of commuters in this region," Wellborn said. "When complete the project will offer new transportation choices, relieve traffic congestion and improve the quality of life in this area."
While environmental groups supported the lane conversion project on I-805, they blasted the CTC for awarding funds to six highway widening projects elsewhere in the state. One such project would add lanes to the Bay Area's State Route 37, which Caltrans acknowledges will experience flooding due to sea level rise.
"Spending $500 million for a highway widening project that will be underwater within two decades of completion is a gross misuse of taxpayer dollars," said Zack Deutsch-Gross, policy director at the environmental advocacy group Transform.
Ward-Waller said Caltrans and the CTC have gotten better at funding infrastructure projects that align with the state's climate goals, which depend on big reductions in car travel. But she said the six freeway widening projects show the agencies have more work to do, especially as scientists warn the window for averting climate catastrophe is shrinking.
"The Trump administration is rolling back a lot of our authority in California to be able to do things like regulate electric vehicles, which is a really important part of our climate strategy," Ward-Waller said. "So being able to use our state dollars and our state authority as effectively as we can to continue to stay on that path towards addressing climate change is really critical."
