Congressman Salud Carbajal declared it a “summer of infrastructure” at a Monday event highlighting the $132.4 million of funding secured for the massive Highway 101 project in southern Santa Barbara County.
“In addition to improving our transportation system, it means jobs, jobs, jobs,” said Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara. “These investments from the federal law made possible by the Biden-Harris administration, and my colleagues in Congress, can help turn those tax dollars into tangible results, delivering a real revitalization to our region.”
The $132.4 million in Senate Bill 1 funding will pay for full Montecito section construction of the Highway 101 project, which adds a third lane in each direction from Carpinteria to Santa Barbara.
“I want you to envision three lanes, but I also want you to envision three lanes with how much faster people who are carpooling or in a bus are going to go,” County Board of Supervisors Chair Das Williams said. “It is literally going to be faster to take a bus from Carpinteria or from Ventura downtown during commute hours than it would be to be in a single lane.”
“I’m really proud of the efforts that we put forward,” Santa Barbara Mayor Randy Rowse said. “It’s important that our local agencies, cities like Lompoc and Santa Barbara, work together with the county to coordinate these things so that our Measure A dollars are properly administered.”
The Highway 101 project has a total cost of $945 million and still needs $145 million to pay for the rest of construction including the Santa Barbara segment. The state, Caltrans District 5, and Santa Barbara County Association of Governments are working to secure funding and coastal development permits to finish the project.
“We can literally see the finish line around that corner,” said State Assemblymember Gregg Hart. “We’re so close, and working together we’re gonna get the rest of the money we need.”
The California Transportation Commission (CTC) approved the $132.4 million on June 28 as part of a $2 billion investment announced by the state from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and competitive Senate Bill 1 grant programs.
“The CTC is very proud to have as one of our projects the solutions for congested corridors because we want to follow our goals with the climate action plan for transportation and infrastructure CAPTI to make our corridors multimodal,” California Transportation Commissioner Hilary Norton said.
This money will also help fund associated programs like six electric buses for the Metropolitan Transit District’s Line 20, with a route between downtown Santa Barbara and Carpinteria, and multi-use pathways for pedestrians and cyclists.
