SANDAG $1.3B draft budget outlines transportation priorities

Planning for a new trolley line, and express service on an existing one. Building a new U.S.-Mexico border crossing. Analysis of a planned downtown mobility hub and airport connection.

Those are some of the plans called for in the San Diego Association of Governments’ $1.3 billion annual draft budget, which outlines more than 200 key projects and programs and nearly $240 million for local road improvements and transit operations across the region.

The regional plan from SANDAG, the region’s top transportation and planning agency, remains focused on improving various modes of transportation, ranging from rail lines to bikeways.

“With key projects ranging from transit and corridor improvements to expansion of the regional bike network, this budget will increase equity and accessibility and enhance all our region has to offer,” said board chair Nora Vargas. “Today’s action is proof that we are getting things done, and I’m proud of the work that we are doing at SANDAG to deliver on our commitments to the San Diego region through a lens of equity and inclusion.”

This upcoming year’s draft budget, which was announced last week and runs from July 2024 through June 2025, includes more than half a billion dollars for capital projects, such as expanding the network of rail lines and bikeways and designing the new Otay Mesa East Port of Entry.

More than 90 percent of the total budget for the fiscal year would go toward regional transportation projects, the agency’s primary purpose.

Nearly two-thirds of SANDAG’s budget revenue comes from state and federal funding, but about 17 percent comes from the region’s dedicated half-cent sales tax, known as TransNet, which was first approved by voters in 1987 and extended in 2004.

Actual TransNet revenue in the current fiscal year is falling short of expectations, and the agency expects to downgrade its projections for the coming year too, SANDAG cautioned in its draft budget.

But agency leadership, environmental groups and organized labor are hoping voters this year will support another sales tax hike to boost transportation. If approved, the November ballot measure would raise the county’s sales tax by a half-cent to help pay for road repairs, carpool lanes and expanded bus and rail services.

It’s part of SANDAG’s ambitious plan to overhaul how San Diegans get around the county and reimagine the region’s transportation by 2050.

Until then, the agency is focused on a slew of priority projects.

At the top of the list is the ongoing project to create a downtown central mobility hub, with a direct connection to the San Diego International Airport to help reduce the traffic that an expansion is expected to worsen. The new draft budget would allocate nearly $75 million to complete the environmental phase and begin the design work.

The budget also includes more than $80 million for ongoing long-term efforts to stabilize the crumbling Del Mar bluffs and reroute San Diego’s coastal rail line to prevent landslides from stopping trains.

The LOSSAN corridor, the railroad route from San Diego to Los Angeles, is not only San Diego’s only operational rail connection to the outside region but also one of the busiest rail corridors in the nation.

SANDAG wants to spend nearly $23 million on bluff stabilization and $61 million to complete the environmental analysis for the LOSSAN realignment project. The goal is to move the tracks off the Del Mar bluffs by 2035.

The draft budget also allocates funding to other rail expansion projects to build roughly 200 miles of new commuter rail lines across the region. That includes nearly $1.8 million to sketch out a new Purple Line rail service between employment centers north of Interstate 8 and communities to the south and $1.9 million for express trolley service on the Blue Line and upgrades to the San Ysidro Transit Center.

The draft budget also earmarks about $114.8 million to begin construction on a new U.S.-Mexico border crossing.

The Otay Mesa East Port of Entry project will connect Tijuana to California’s state highway system, easing extended wait times and cutting down on emission-spewing trucks idling at the two current ports of entry in Otay Mesa and San Ysidro.

Major construction is slated to start in the fall — requiring at least an additional $468 million in funding over the next few years — with the facility anticipated to open to the public by late 2026.

Construction on the Otay Mesa East Port of Entry on Friday, Feb. 18, 2022 in San Diego.

(Alejandro Tamayo/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

In another ongoing project, the draft budget allocates nearly $79 million — 12 percent of SANDAG’s capital projects budget — to continue a decades-long project to connect roughly 70 miles of bike lanes across the region.

This year, the agency hopes to make progress on a number of bikeway projects, most notably one that runs from the bayshore in Barrio Logan all the way to the border.

SANDAG also expects to spend almost $30.5 million in the next fiscal year to resolve ongoing tolling system deficiencies, after the agency was hit with a class-action lawsuit just last month for the South Bay Expressway.

That planned spending would include $3.9 million to replace the regional tolling back-office system for state Route 125 and future toll-collecting roadways, and an additional $2.2 million to transition Interstate 15 to the new system.

SANDAG expects the system to go live early next year but also to require nearly $15 million more over the next few years to be complete.

The SANDAG Board of Directors is also holding a special meeting Friday to discuss the results of a new audit of the SR-125 tolling issue, after the agency called for an assessment by its internal auditor in December.

SANDAG’S board will be asked to approve the $1.3 billion final budget on May 10. If approved, the budget would take effect July 1.

The public can provide comments on it by emailing pio@sandag.org or writing to SANDAG PIO, 401 B St., Suite 800, San Diego, CA 92101.

To learn more, visit SANDAG.org/fy25budget.