Easing concerns that the Milpas Street-to-Hot Springs Road construction on Highway 101 could grind to a halt, the state is indicating it will buy the project some more time. But a regional government official said it’s still too early to breathe a sigh of relief.
Last month, citing California’s economic tailspin, a state panel froze $3.8 billion in loans for infrastructure projects to pay for vital public services.
Then, on Friday, the three-member Pooled Money Investment Board — consisting of the state’s controller, treasurer and the governor’s finance director — amended its statement. The panel now says it intends to free up funding for projects that are under way through the next billing cycle, which ends Feb. 20, said Jim Kemp, executive director of the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments.
This past summer in Santa Barbara, crews broke ground on the largest highway construction project in the county’s history. The four-year, $80 million Highway 101 improvement project includes widening both directions of the freeway between Hot Springs and Milpas. The project also includes building a roundabout on Coast Village Road at Hot Springs and Old Coast Highway and making improvements to the southbound Milpas onramp.
For motorists, any delays would prolong the duration of current inconveniences, such as the closed Milpas onramp and the roundabout construction.
Kemp said the panel’s most recent statement amounts to a temporary reprieve. But he added that the committee will meet again before Feb. 20 — he didn’t know the exact date — to determine if anything has changed for the better or worse. If the situation is worse, a work stoppage on all projects — including the ones in progress — could be issued, he said.
“We’re not out of the woods,” he said.
Still, Kemp said Friday’s announcement was good news.
“The last we’d heard, the money had run out, and there wasn’t any more money going to be made available,” he said.
Even if the money does run out in February, there is a local contingency plan. SBCAG could offer a temporary reprieve of its own, in the unusual form of a loan to the state.
On Thursday, SBCAG’s board — which includes the mayor of every county city, plus the Board of Supervisors — voted to grant Kemp and his staff the authority to continue discussions with Caltrans officials about the possibility of floating the state a loan to keep the project going.
Specifically, the loan would come from Measure D, the county’s existing half-cent sales tax. But even if it happens, the loan wouldn’t buy the state much time. Kemp said SBCAG could afford to lend the state about $2 million, which would last the contractor two months, tops, he said.
“Even in that case, we might forestall, but not prevent a work stoppage,” he said.
What’s more, Kemp said the SBCAG board could still decide against making the loan, if the language of the repayment agreement isn’t strong enough.
All told, in the worst-case scenario, the project could still be frozen in mid-February.
However, in a bizarre assurance, Caltrans has agreed — in the event of a work stoppage — to at the very least bring the roads to the condition they were in before crews broke ground.
“We would be going backward, essentially,” Kemp said. “But if a stoppage were to happen, you don’t want to leave conditions like they are now, with no construction work going on for months.”
In addition to the widening and the roundabout, the Highway 101 project calls for completely replacing the Milpas overpass, as well as improving several other bridges.
About $52 million of the project’s $80 million cost is to come through the Pooled Money Investment Board. About $13 million will come from Measure D, with the balance due from other state and federal funds.
The $52 million in state money became available as a result of Proposition 1B, which was passed by voters in 2006 to create funding for transportation projects.
Write to rkuznia@noozhawk.com
