Across-the-board cooperation for interchange project

By: NICOLE SACK - Staff Writer | Tuesday, August 7, 2007 11:22 PM PDT ∞

TEMECULA -- By the time a massive interchange project planned for Interstate 15 north of Winchester Road is completed, the next president would be concluding his or her first term, according to a timeline unveiled by regional officials Tuesday.

Under that plan, drivers would be able to use the $140 million system of on- and offramps dubbed as the French Valley Parkway interchange by December 2012.

Government officials -- ranging from city leaders to a U.S. congressman -- agree that meeting the schedule would be a remarkable achievement for commuters traveling through the Temecula Valley.

"If we can beat the timeline, great. But our goal is to hit this schedule. If we do, it will be a grand slam for the residents," said Temecula City Manager Shawn Nelson. "There are a lot of moving parts to this project."

The interchange would be built between Winchester Road and the I-215 split on I-15, but would include a network parallel roads that would allow drivers to bypass the highly congested stretch where the two highways merge. The interchange is also expected to relieve some of the traffic on Winchester.

Nelson said the first major step is for Temecula to submit a report outlining its plan for the city's system of connections to Interstate 15 to the Federal Highway Administration in November.

Approval from the feds could be granted as soon as January. From there, the California Department of Transportation will need to approve the environmental documents and the project report, which is expected to occur in August 2008.

The timeline was released at a gathering of governmental officials at the Old Town Temecula Community Theater on Tuesday morning to discuss the project's status. Temecula City Councilmen Ron Roberts and Jeff Comerchero, Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone, State Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries, R-Murrieta, and U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, heard assessments of the project from representatives of Federal Highway Administration and Caltrans as well as Temecula engineers.

Meetings among the project stakeholders have taken place each month since May, when the city of Temecula asked for assistance from Issa to move the project through federal logjams. The monthly sit-downs have helped to alleviate some of the frustrations associated with delays to the multi-agency project.

"This is the most important infrastructure project the Temecula Valley has ever undertaken, and it is a very expensive project," Stone said as he emphasized the need for urgency. "We have it 100 percent funded today, but not necessarily 100 percent funded tomorrow," he said, alluding to rising construction costs.

Stone asked if the $1.8 million in federal funds allocated for the parkway project was the reason the city was jumping though hoops to get review and approval of the plans, which prompted a response from the congressman.

Issa said it was not so much a matter of "federal hoops," but rather long-standing policies put in place to protect the nation's federal highway system. He said that while the regulations may be cumbersome, they are meant to preserve highways for regional travel of trips 25 miles or more, rather than for "driving three miles to soccer practice."

Gene Fong, administrator for the California Division of the Federal Highway Administration, echoed the need to preserve the interstate system for regional travel and said city streets are also needed to make the area's traffic circulate successfully.

Federal officials previously have said they needed assurances that more local routes were being planned between Murrieta and Temecula before they could proceed with the interchange.

Fong said the need for secondary roads remains, but when they must be completed is less definitive.

"Those roads don't have to be built before the connection report is reviewed, but we want to see real plans and actual funding identified to make those improvements happen," Fong said. "I am confident we share the same goals. We are certainly sympathetic to cost increases and that congestion continues to be a major issue. But right now we are in a holding mode, waiting to see the ... report from the city."

Phase I of the French Valley Parkway Interchange project will cost approximately $18 million and is projected to begin in May 2010. It will include adding a new southbound offramp from Interstate 15 to the French Valley Parkway, building the northern half of French Valley Parkway from the offramp to Jefferson Avenue, widening the existing southbound offramp from I-15 to Winchester Road and constructing new auxiliary lanes between French Valley Parkway and the Winchester Road southbound offramp. Those improvements are scheduled to be completed in 2011.

The second phase of the project will complete the remaining elements of the French Valley Parkway Interchange, which include other auxiliary lanes, the construction of the overpass and various onramp and offramp modifications. Phase II is estimated to cost $122 million and is anticipated to be completed in December 2012.

When completed, the length of the project from end-to-end, including the auxiliary lanes, will be approximately 4 miles, said Avlin Odviar, associate engineer with the city.

While the project has been in the works since 1998, Temecula City Councilman Jeff Comerchero said now is the time for urgency.

"I want to issue a challenge: We need to beat those deadlines," Comerchero said. "If we are all really partners in this, as I think we are, then let's work together and get this done."

To which Issa replied, "Amen."

-- Contact staff writer Nicole Sack at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2616, or nsack@californian.com.