In November, the Metro Board Planning Committee approved just over $7 million for additional work toward getting a Metro 91 Freeway widening project ready for construction. On the 91, Metro currently anticipates adding one more westbound lane for nearly four miles between Shoemaker Avenue and the 605 Freeway exit at Alondra Boulevard. The widening is located in the cities of Artesia and Cerritos.
The committee approval [staff report] still requires full board approval, which is scheduled for a vote at this Thursday's board meeting [agenda].
Metro and Caltrans had planned to widen three stretches of the 91 Freeway through southeast L.A. County. One of those 91 Freeway widenings - in North Long Beach - is being canceled.
The Westbound 91 project [Metro project page] would add one more general purpose lane. The project was approved via a 2019 document called a "FONSI" - a Finding of No Significant Impact.
In the 2019 design, Metro and Caltrans had planned to demolish five homes and two businesses to widen this part of the 91. (Yes, Metro and Caltrans do not consider tearing out homes to be a significant impact.) Under pressure to stop Metro's widespread home demolition, Metro highway builders mercifully scaled back their 91 Freeway expansion plans to take no homes, only "sliver acquisitions." Most of the widening would be accomplished by eliminating a landscaped margin next to the existing freeway soundwall (see image at top).
Metro has already spent more than $11 million on this expansion - for design/engineering/professional services. This week's approval would kick in an additional $7, then Metro would need to pay for construction, estimated at $162 million (as of 2021).
The additional $7+million would go to:
- $4.8 million for additional professional services needed for project plans/specifications. In 2019, Metro had approved an $11.5 million contract for this; additional costs now and expected through construction would up this contract to $17.5 million.
- $2.1 million to Caltrans for the state to "complete final design, prepare all necessary documents, and advertise, award, and approve the project for construction." Yes, Metro expects to pay Caltrans to approve this project.
- $126,000 to the state Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) for required wetlands mitigation. Yes, a project that Metro and Caltrans declared to have "no significant impacts" will remove wetlands, and this means that the Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB - see order) is requiring Metro/Caltrans to pay compensation. The wetlands in question are an open drainage channel (running from the Artesia Boulevard onramp to the Bloomfield Avenue onramp). The project would expand the freeway over this marginal green strip, including burying its aboveground concrete channel into a covered, underground reinforced concrete box culvert. The MRCA would use these funds (generated in southeast L.A. County) to restore a portion of Dayton Canyon Creek (in Northwest L.A. County, next to the Ventura County border).
At the November 19 Planning Committee meeting, the additional 91 Freeway expansion funding was approved in a split vote. Four boardmembers (L.A. City mayoral appointee Jacqueline Dupont-Walker, County Supervisor Hilda Solis, Inglewood Mayor James Butts, and Glendale Mayor Ara Najarian) voted in favor of this freeway expansion. The sole no vote was County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who has made a point of voting against highway expansion projects.
