After outcry, state restores $10 million to widen Hwy. 46’s ‘Blood Alley’ in SLO County
A project to widen the final section of Highway 46 East in San Luis Obispo County is back on track after state transportation officials agreed to restore millions of dollars in funding that had previously been diverted to rail infrastructure.
Central Coast residents, transportation planners and lawmakers were dismayed in October when a Caltrans proposal suggested pulling $15 million allocated for widening the Antelope Grade and adding a median east of the notorious Highway 46-Highway 41 Cholame “Y” intersection.
But Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham, R-San Luis Obispo, announced on Tuesday $10.3 million of that money would be restored after his office, the San Luis Obispo Council of Governments (SLOCOG) and community members lobbied the state to return the funding.
“I am pleased to see that the California Transportation Commission (CTC) took the concerns of our community seriously,” Cunningham wrote in a statement. “Pulling critical funding from the Highway 46 project would have caused serious issues for our community and resulted in more lives lost along Blood Alley. This project is a priority for our region, and this serves as a valuable lesson that the Central Coast can achieve great things when we work together as a community.”
Rail projects versus road repairs
The proposal to yank the funding stemmed from an executive order Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in September directing transportation officials to “reduce congestion through innovative strategies designed to encourage people to shift from cars to other modes of transportation.”
To accomplish this, $61.3 million — including funds from Senate Bill 1, a law that raised gas taxes to fund transportation projects — were to be held back and used for rail projects and other budget items.
In response, Cunningham wrote a letter to transportation officials calling the Antelope Grade section of Highway 46 East “the golden spike” in the project, as it’s the final section of seven the state has spent $400 million to widen.
Pete Rodgers, SLOCOG executive director, said a combined Central Coast-Central Valley lobbying effort helped restore the funding.
“There was a lot of pressure put upon the California Transportation Commission,” Rodgers said.
The $10.3 million now allocated for Highway 46 East will be used for planning, design and environmental work, he said.
The Antelope Grade project is still in need of an additional $75 million for right-of-way purchases and construction costs, but local transportation planners are hoping to get this money through federal grants and future state funding cycles, Rodgers said.
Officials will approve the funding in March 2020, he said.
“We need to keep the pace,” he said. “We need to complete this corridor.”
Cunningham encourages his constituents to support the 2020 transportation funding plan by emailing the CTC at ctc@catc.ca.gov.
