La Jolla Town Council was updated on a long-term transportation project extending trolley service from downtown San Diego to University City, UCSD and Westfield UTC at its June 13 meeting.
Allan Kosup, I-5 corridor director for Caltrans, gave a slideshow presentation on the Mid-Coast Corridor Transit Project, which will add eight new trolley stations from Old Town in an 11-mile stretch north. New trolley stops are to include Nobel Drive, UCSD East and West campuses, Executive Drive and the UTC Transit Center in University City.
Kosup said the challenge with the Mid-Coast project has been to do the trolley extension “holistically.”
“There are lots of tools in the toolbox to solve the transportation problem,” he said. “But it’s not just about building things. It’s also about demand management, reducing demand for solo-vehicle transportation while educating people about transportation alternatives — car and vanpools, flex times, etc.”
Kosup said standards are being set high for the Mid-Coast project.
“The bar for us is to demonstrate a net benefit to the coastal resource,” he said.
Coastal rail improvements costing about $6.5 billion will be done in segments over the next 40 years along the 26-mile I-5 corridor from downtown San Diego north. Kosup said the project segment in La Jolla’s Golden Triangle will upgrade I-5 interchanges in the area making them “more aesthetically sensitive.”
A case in point is the I-5 Genesee Interchange Project, which will remove and replace the Genesee overcrossing.
“There will be about two years of construction on that,” Kosup said.
The I-5/Genesee Avenue Interchange Project will expand, from five to 10, the number of Genesee Avenue overpass lanes to accommodate greater future traffic demand. The project will improve traffic flow and reduce congestion on Genesee Avenue, including widening freeway access ramps and adding auxiliary lanes, as well as adding a bicycle and pedestrian facility linking to transportation, employment centers hospitals and UCSD.
For more information, visit www.keepsandiegomoving.com/ncc.
Fred Sweet, producer of the La Jolla Fashion Film Festival (LJFFF), visited the Town Council to discuss the upcoming two-day festival at the Museum of Contemporary Art.
“It is a true international festival,” Sweet said, adding the festival will likely sell out again this year.
The LJFFF is the world’s largest gathering of fashion film professionals with hundreds of attendees screening the top 1 percent of fashion films worldwide, as well as networking and attending seminars, panels and press receptions.
Town Council trustee Mary Soriano said she’s attended the fashion festival and she praised the work of filmmakers involved as being “subtle and passionate.”
Town Council trustee Egon Kafka agreed.
“These films are the most creative stuff out there,” Kafka said. “It’s unbelievable how Fred (Sweet) makes this happen year after year. It’s amazing.”