This morning, Metro broke ground on another project to widen the 5 Freeway. Metro’s I-5 North County Enhancements Project will widen about thirteen miles of the freeway through Santa Clarita, at a cost of $679 million. The relatively suburban city of Santa Clarita is located in north Los Angeles County.
This new 5 Freeway widening joins Metro’s $1.9+ billion I-5 South widening (from Orange County to the 605) and $1.3+ billion I-5 North widening (Burbank area) projects, both under construction for several years, plus Metro’s planned $4+ billion 605 Freeway widening project which would include demolishing hundreds of homes to widen the 5 Freeway in and near the city of Downey.
This morning’s groundbreaking ceremony speeches were streamed live on Facebook.
It’s not clear whether it’s a good or a bad sign that many of today’s speakers defensively decried the harms that these sorts of freeway widening projects cause. Instead of blithely praising more and more lanes, several speakers deflected concerns – noting how different this freeway widening is compared to past harmful widening. But many of these new equity-washing and greenwashing statements are just false.
Metro Boardmember and County Supervisor Kathryn Barger claimed that, due to new high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, this freeway widening project will “help take cars off the road and reduce pollution.” No freeway widening project has ever delivered either these sorts of promises – and this one will not.
Metro CEO...
When asked to comment on recent claims by the head of Taiwan's regional foreign affairs department that the Taiwan authorities are conducting dialogues and consultations with politicians and socia...