Transportation experts and city and county staff are gathering for another Santa Clarita transportation summit with Supervisor Kathryn Barger on Wednesday.
The summit will begin at 1 p.m. at Santa Clarita City Hall. Discussion is expected to center on systemwide planning efforts after the November 2016 passing of Measure M, according to Transportation Deputy David Perry.
Measure M is a half-cent sales tax funding Los Angeles County’s multi-faceted, 40-year transit expansion slated to give $120 billion to Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus and rail operations, as well as road repairs.
Transportation experts also are planning to discuss updates on bigger projects, such as the ongoing rehabilitation of Interstate 5, Perry said. The rehabilitation project costs $171 million and repaves over 15.8 miles of the freeway between a half-mile south of Route 14 to a mile and a half north of Lake Hughes Road. The plans also include expanding HOV lanes and truck-only lanes all the way to Castaic.
At the last summit in September, attendees discussed plans to extend the Metrolink rail that would take people from Santa Clarita to the Hollywood Burbank airport.
The city also talked about an extension to six lanes on Via Princessa, which costs $4 million for the design and $36 million for the construction, including an $11.5 million in a grant from Metro. Unincorporated parts of the Santa Clarita Valley also have $9.6 million worth of projects pending current funding.
The Old Road from Tourney Road to Magic Mountain Parkway project, which will require $23 million, was also a point of discussion.
More funding for L.A. County transportation projects is also eligible through the passage of Senate Bill 1 in April 2017, totaling an estimated $137 million over the course of five years.
Between Santa Clarita Valley’s three Metrolink stations, there is an average of over 1,000 boardings each day, according to a previous interview with Metrolink Government Relations Administer Alex Davis.
Barger normally does summits in the Antelope Valley, but Santa Clarita began hosting last year, Perry said. The summit last year saw attendees from Caltrans, Metrolink and the Department of Public Works.
