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Nearly 30 Years Later, Centerline Gets on the Fast Track

By Megan Burks / Education Reporter
Published April 23, 2013 at 4:32 PM PDT
This story was published more than 11 years ago.
City Heights resident Maria Cortez discusses her nearly three-decade wait for a bus route called Centerline at a 2011 press conference. Residents have fought for the long-delayed transit project since the 1980's, when it was promised to them in exchange for allowing CalTrans to extend Interstate-15 through their neighborhood.
Randolph Van Vleck
City Heights resident Maria Cortez discusses her nearly three-decade wait for a bus route called Centerline at a 2011 press conference. Residents have fought for the long-delayed transit project since the 1980's, when it was promised to them in exchange for allowing CalTrans to extend Interstate-15 through their neighborhood.

City Heights residents who have waited decades to break ground on a rapid bus line through their neighborhood got a surprise win late Friday. The SANDAG Transportation Committee found unexpected funds that put the delayed project on the fast track to completion.

Nearly 30 Years Later, Centerline Gets on the Fast Track
A decades-long wait for a mid-city transit project could be over in 2015, thanks to some unexpected funds.

Pictured is a rendering of the Centerline project where passengers will be able to use an elevator down to special boarding areas at the freeway level.
Randy Van Vleck
Pictured is a rendering of the Centerline project where passengers will be able to use an elevator down to special boarding areas at the freeway level.
Speak City Heights is a media collaborative aimed at amplifying the voices of residents in one of San Diego’s most diverse neighborhoods. (<a href="http://www.speakcityheights.org/about/">Read more</a>)
Speak City Heights
Speak City Heights is a media collaborative aimed at amplifying the voices of residents in one of San Diego’s most diverse neighborhoods. (Read more)

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Pictured is a rendering of the Centerline project where buses and passengers would be separated from freeway traffic at bus stops.
Courtesy of Randy Van Vleck
Pictured is a rendering of the Centerline project where buses and passengers would be separated from freeway traffic at bus stops.

Caltrans promised the bus route, called Centerline, to City Heights residents in the 1980s after bisecting their community with Interstate 15. Homes were razed. Through streets were dead-ended, limiting ties between eastern and western City Heights.

Nearly 30 years later, the consolation prize could be fully funded.

The transportation committee, which includes former City Heights Councilman Todd Gloria, has identified funds freed up by savings from projects that came in under budget and a canceled $22.5 million study. Those savings are enough to finish up the design phase and construction of Centerline, which is scheduled for completion in May 2015.

Advocates of the project said they were stunned by the news. Just last month SANDAG budgeted only $11 million for the project. The new revenue source brings funding up to $23.4 million for the same budget cycle.

"We heard the $11 million was in the pipeline, but we didn't know about this," said Randy Van Vleck, who oversees transportation campaigns for the City Heights Community Development Corporation. "It was a big surprise to our office."

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Van Vleck said the next step is fine-tuning safety designs, which he says is particularly important in this case. The project includes two bus stops that will load passengers at the freeway level. Passengers will take elevators down to the center median.

Planners intended for the design to speed up travel to job centers. City Heights CDC Board President Stephen Russell said the feature will have a big impact on mid-city residents.

"It'll connect us to the jobs in Kearney Mesa, in Sorrento Valley and in South Bay," said Russell, who's been advocating for Centerline for 15 years. "In so many ways it is going to be an avenue of opportunity for the people who live here."

The new allocation awaits final approval from the SANDAG board in May.

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Megan Burks
Megan Burks is the education reporter at KPBS. She reports on teaching and learning from infancy into adulthood, the achievement gap, and school governance. Before tackling the education beat, Megan helped launch Speak City Heights, a media collaborative covering community health in the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego. As Speak City Heights reporter for KPBS and Voice of San Diego, Megan's work pushed reform in the San Diego Police Department and taxi industry. She was awarded the San Diego County Taxpayers Association's 2015 Media Watchdog Award for her look at dangerous housing conditions for low-income tenants. Megan has also been recognized by the San Diego Human Relations Commission and Society of Professional Journalists San Diego Pro Chapter for bringing underrepresented voices to radio and television. Megan was born and raised in El Cajon, and graduated from San Diego State University, where she studied journalism and sociology. Her thesis looked at the media’s effects on attitudes toward immigrants. She interned with San Diego CityBeat and KPBS’ Envision San Diego.
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