Golden Hill Resident Gathers Petition Signatures for State Route 94 Expansion Project

The State Route 94 Express Lanes Project would focus on adding two express lanes.

A plan to try and improve the commute on one State Route 94 is being criticized by some local residents who say the project would create more negatives than positives.

The State Route 94 Express Lanes Project would focus on adding two express lanes, one in each direction, between Interstate 5 and Interstate 805 on the crucial route.

The plan is part of SANDAG’s 2050 San Diego Regional Transportation Plan and would cost between $500 and $600 million to build the HOV lanes without widening the freeway’s footprint.

The goal of the project is to relieve traffic, but residents in the area say the project would bring more negatives than positives.

"Yeah, our residents are very concerned about the health effects and the noise pollution, not only for our neighborhood, but for the region,” resident Judd Curran said.

Curran, a Golden Hill homeowner, said his home was built in 1893, one of the many historic homes in the neighborhood. Golden Hill was one of the first neighborhoods of the downtown area, but since he has moved in, there have been plenty of changes.

He has been going door to door, gathering signatures for a petition. Since he started a four days ago, he has gathered more than 100 signatures.

People in the neighborhood, he said, want to see alternatives to the project.

"We really are concerned about the health effects of this expansion,” Curran said. β€œWe really want to see alternatives that explore light rail."

Instead of making room for cars, he wants to see alternatives to driving take place in the area and in San Diego.

Caltrans says the first draft of their environmental impact report should come out by July 2015. After that is released, people have 60 days to comment on the report. A final draft should be released by 2016.

They say they previously did a series of workshops from 2010 to 2013, where people had the opportunity to comment on the expansion. 

There is no estimated construction date yet, but the project is estimated to be completed by 2020.  

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