DATE: April 13, 1999
TO: Board of Supervisors
SUBJECT: PRIORITIZING FEDERAL FUNDING FOR LOCAL HIGHWAY IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS

SUMMARY:
Issue/Reference:
This Board letter will provide the Federal legislators representing San Diego County with a list of local transportation projects that should receive priority attention during the development of the Federal Fiscal Year 1999-2000 Transportation Appropriations Bill.

Recommendation:
CHAIRWOMAN SLATER AND VICE-CHAIR JACOB
1. Adopt the attached resolution expressing the Board of Supervisors' support for giving priority attention to funding improvement projects involving the local highways listed in the resolution.

2. Direct the Chief Administrative Officer to draft a letter for the Chairman's signature to be sent to the members of the San Diego County Congressional delegation and to the County's Washington legislative representative asking them to work to include the County's local highway improvement priority projects in the Federal Fiscal Year 1999-2000 Transportation Appropriations Bill.

3. Direct the Chief Administrative Officer to draft a letter for the Chairman's signature to be sent to the Chairman of the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), the Director of the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), and the Caltrans District 11 Director, asking that SANDAG and Caltrans work together to prepare a Project Study Report for State Route 67 and include State Route 67 improvements in the Regional Transportation Plan.

Fiscal Impact:
If approved, this request will result in no additional costs or staff years.

BACKGROUND
Last year's passage of the "Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century" (TEA 21) provided local governments with a blueprint for spending $218 billion on transportation projects over the next six fiscal years. Congressional committees are now beginning the process of drafting the Fiscal Year 1999-2000 Transportation Appropriations legislation which will appropriate the actual federal transportation funding for next year.

To ensure that San Diego County transportation projects are best positioned to receive the maximum level of federal transportation dollars, it is important that the County send a clear and unified message to our federal representatives informing them of the local highway improvement projects that are most important to the region.

There are several highways in San Diego County that play a major role in serving regional traffic and are in dire need of improvements to handle current and future projected traffic volumes. The following is a list of these freeways along with the average daily traffic volumes (ADT) on the sections requiring improvements and the estimated costs of adequately improving these roadways:

The list of highways which will be sent to our representatives will include the ADT of each highway.

In the case of State Route 67, although improvements to this highway are included in Caltrans' State Route 67 Transportation Concept Plan, the improvements also need to be identified in the SANDAG portion of the San Diego Regional Transportation Plan.

The Ramona Community Planning Group Transportation Subcommittee recently provided the County with information on the various traffic problems occurring along State Route 67 in the Ramona area and asked the County to begin the process of developing a plan to improve the situation. We, therefore, request that SANDAG work with Caltrans to prepare a Project Study Report on State Route 67 and include this highway in the Regional Transportation Plan to begin the process necessary to construct improvements to State Route 67.

We urge you to support the attached resolution recognizing these San Diego County highway improvement projects as priorities for the Board of Supervisors.

Respectfully Submitted,

DIANNE JACOB
Vice Chair

PAM SLATER
Chairwoman