It's been a long time coming, but this finally may be the year ground is broken on the half-billion-dollar project to widen Highway 76, according to a published report.
With a required environmental study having been completed in late November, the California Department of Transportation is gearing up for construction of the six-mile middle section of Highway 76 between Melrose Drive in Oceanside and Mission Road in Bonsall, according to the North County Times.
"We've begun appraising and purchasing properties out there, and our target for starting construction is late this year," Mark Phelan, Caltrans' Highway 76 project manager, told the paper in an interview this week.
Phelan said the planned transformation of the $244 million middle section from a winding, two-lane road to a broad and straighter four-lane highway should be completed by the middle of 2012.
Read details about other plans connected to this project in the article in the North County Times.
