Caltrans is preparing to release the latest draft environmental impact report for the Highway 101 widening project, close to a year after a Superior Court judge ordered it to be revised and recirculated following a lawsuit.
At the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments’ board meeting on Thursday, Caltrans Highway 101 corridor manager Scott Eades said that a 60-day public-comment period would begin once the document is released either next week or the following week, with a public hearing to be held sometime in early or mid-December.
The revision came after a lawsuit challenged the document, arguing that Caltrans was inadequate in the way it analyzed impacts to local intersections and cumulative traffic impacts from the project, which will add a high-occupancy-vehicle lane in each direction of Highway 101 between Santa Barbara and Carpinteria.
The upcoming draft EIR will be available on Caltrans’ website, and the final EIR is expected to be ready in late spring, Eades said.
Phase 4 of the overall Highway 101 project — that third lane between Santa Barbara and Carpinteria — is the final, 10-mile leg of the project, said Tony Harris, SBCAG’s Highway 101 corridor advisor.
A handful of Phase-4 tasks, including mapping, cost-risk analysis and a project management plan, are complete, he said.
Tasks underway include preliminary designs, environmental studies, cost estimates, construction-phasing evaluations, hydrology analysis and clarifying the coastal-permitting process.
“There’s a lot going on with a lot of people,” Harris told the board.
The project survived $750 million in cuts to funding made this year by the California Transportation Commission.
It survived, Harris said, because it was demonstrated that Phase 4’s design will be less complex than many other projects’ designs, can begin construction sooner than planned, and already links into completed work from an earlier phase.
Work on Phase 4 could begin as early as fiscal year 2018-19, he added, with staff recommendations on how to phase construction expected in March.
“We’re definitely making some excellent progress,” said Second District Supervisor Janet Wolf, who currently chairs the SBCAG board.
In September, work started on the four-year, $60 million Phase 3 in Carpinteria, which reconstructs and widens Highway 101 overcrossings at Linden Avenue and Casitas Pass Road, reconstructs freeway bridges over Carpinteria Creek, extends Via Real for over a mile to meet up with Linden Avenue, and improves various bicycle and pedestrian crossings.
Tree and vegetation removal by the creek and stripping the freeway median have begun, said Fred Luna, SBCAG principal transportation planner.
Construction extending Via Real and widening Highway 101 bridges will begin in the spring, he said.
Information on Phase 3 will be available at sbroads.com.
Phases 1 and 2, which kicked off the project in 2008 and have been completed, widened the freeway between Milpas Street and Hot Springs Road in Montecito, as well as between Carpinteria and La Conchita in Ventura County.
By the end of the project, about 16 miles of Highway 101 will be widened.
With a meeting no longer scheduled for December, the SBCAG board also voted in its new officers.
Taking over as chair in 2017 will be Goleta City Councilman Michael Bennett, the current vice-chair and SBCAG director.
Assuming Bennett’s current seat will be Fourth District county Supervisor Peter Adam.
The two were unanimously approved.
SBCAG’s board is made up of county supervisors and representatives from city councils.
— Noozhawk staff writer Sam Goldman can be reached at sgoldman@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.