This LAT article highlights the fact that California state officials buckled to pressure to release more Prop 1 B bond dough sooner.
In November, voters approved a massive bond package that will eventually provide about $20 billion for transportation projects, and critics of the Feb. 16 proposal had argued that the state needed to move much faster to start fixing gridlocked freeways and roads.
The California Transportation Commission bumped up this year’s allocations from $2.8B to $4.5B. But what’s also noteworthy (but hardly surprising) is that much of the moola will be used to expand something that should have been ditched a long time agoââ?¬â??carpool lanes:
In Riverside County, the state is now recommending spending $134 million out of a total of nearly $173 million to add carpool lanes along the 91 Freeway through Riverside, which like the 405 is one of Southern California’s most congested freeways. … Much of the state’s planned increase ââ?¬â?? $730 million ââ?¬â?? has been earmarked for a carpool lane on the northbound 405 though the Westside, part of a major plan to create a continuous carpool lane from Irvine to the northern end of the San Fernando Valley. … In addition, Los Angeles County would get $387 million to start construction of a carpool lane on the 5 from the Orange County line to near the 605, now considered a major traffic bottleneck. The initial recommendation was for $157 million.