I-80 HOV Funds Approved OKd

I-80 HOV Funds Approved OKd
Summer work set, Red Top Road to Air Base Parkway
By Reporter Staff
Article Launched: 02/15/2008

Funding for construction of carpool lanes on Interstate 80 from Red Top Road to Air Base Parkway was formally approved Thursday by the California Transportation Commission.

The commission voted to allocate some $331 million in new funding for transportation projects across the state, using funds from Proposition 1B, the $19.9 billion transportation bond approved by voters in 2006.

Included in the allocation is $38 million to add 17 miles of new carpool lanes through Solano County.

Solano Transportation Authority Director Daryl Halls said the vote formally allocates the funding, meaning construction can commence this summer as previously planned.

"This is a very important project," Halls said. "It is another part of the I-80/I-680 improvements."

This project will save an estimated 10,000 daily vehicle hours of delay, state officials said.

Other Proposition 1B projects that received allocations Thursday included $22 million to install hundreds of traffic monitoring stations in the Bay Area and Inland Empire.

That funding includes enough for 84 such monitoring stations in the Solano area from Benicia to Yolo County and some in Napa

These stations utilize traffic technology (traffic cameras, vehicle speed and
volume detectors, and other devices) to help ease traffic congestion, improve response time to accidents and provide traffic information to the state, the media and the public.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger commended the allocations.

"California voters will see their investments in our transportation infrastructure at work across the state. Not only will these projects help our economy by moving people and goods faster, but they will also help keep people at work with well-paying jobs," Schwarzenegger said.