CalTrans I-5 expansion meeting

KUSI is here, and there are lots of cars and people showing up.

Come on by. It goes until 8pm. It's an expo format with booths, so you can stop by for 15 minutes or whatever you can spare.



I kinda felt sorry for the CalTrans consultants sent here to take the bullets from the angry mob. They were polite and knowledgeable, and getting an earful.



This is what the Manchester exit might look like.

They had detailed diagrams of each section of freeway through Encinitas, showing how far the widened freeway would go, and where sound barriers would go up. The worst part of the organization was that they had one tiny table on sound barriers, and that was where everybody wanted to go to find out what would happen in their neighborhoods.

The project is supposed to happen in five or ten years, depending on funding, public resistance, environmental issues, etc. Though I wouldn't count on funding being a problem as this is a federal project and Zimbabwe Ben can just print off as many billions as they need.

It was interesting to hear people propose ideas on issues like sound mitigation. The answer from the consultants was "Nope. We have to do it this way because the feds set the standards, and we can't do any more because the feds provide all the funding." I have a feeling a few local supporters of big federal government may be rethinking their philosophy.

Some of the city leaders were there. I saw Houlihan and Barth and Tony Kranz. No sightings of the union/developer wing of the council, but I may have missed them, and I left early so they may have come later. Kranz and Barth were hanging out together, reinforcing the common belief that they'd be allies on the council. I didn't see presumed Stocks ally Kristin Gaspar either.



The Resistance lives on!