101 Safety Corridor improvement project faces $25 million shortfall

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EUREKA – Improvements to the Highway 101 Safety Corridor have been in the works for more than a decade, but stakeholders have just learned that the project’s budget is short by millions of dollars.
Proposed changes include an interchange at Indianola as well as safety improvements at Airport Road. The final four miles of the Humboldt Bay Trail would also be completed as part of the project.
At the regular meeting of the Humboldt County Association of Governments the project manager reported an unanticipated shortfall of $25 million.

Some of the reasons include updated estimates for mitigation measures that were highly underestimated according to Caltrans HCAOG Executive Director Marcella Clem.

A prior statewide budget shortage had already pushed the project back two years to 2020. Now the county will have to find a way to make up the difference.

Clem said, “We’ve partnered with Caltrans. They have a fund and in 2016 they devoted 15.7 million dollars to this project. So, we’re asking for them to step up again and assist us. Our share whatever that turns out to be will come out of our regional share in the State Transportation Improvement Program.”

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