Critiquing the $1.9 Billion Project to Widen I-5 in Los Angeles County

Joe Linton reports on a new promotional video from Caltrans District 7, which "inexplicably proclaims that widening a stretch of the 5 freeway in southeast L.A. County will 'reduce congestion' and 'improve air quality.'"

"The video, shown at Metro’s board and committee meetings recently, further boasts about 'better safety' and how outsized new bridges over the freeway will each 'dwarf the original bridge.' It goes on to herald Caltrans’ $1.9 billion project (funded by Metro’s Measure R) as a '21st-century transformation,'" according to Linton.

Linton's assessment of the proposed freeway widening is far less complimentary: "What it really resembles are all of those dreadful 20th-century transformations that gave L.A. County its current congestion and foul air, plus plenty of child asthma, noise, disconnected neighborhoods, obesity, and other problems. These are all accompanied by budget-breaking infrastructure maintenance costs passed along to our children’s generation."