Measure I is a county sales tax that municipal governments can use for transportation projects. In order to use the funds, local governments must identify projects and estimate the costs of the projects every year. At last night’s meeting of the Yucca Valley Town Council, the council approved a resolution on a five-year capital improvement program and anticipated expenditures for Measure I projects. Managing editor Tami Roleff says the plan is to widen the highway in one spot and extend some residential roads…
Anyone who’s driven through Yucca Valley during “rush hour” knows that portions of Highway 62 have bottlenecks. One Measure I project is an analysis of widening the highway from Old Woman Springs Road to Warren Vista. “That’s going to be the first segment that’s going to hit 40,000 vehicle trips per day, where we have the most congestion at this point…. At some point in the future it will be widened to three travel lanes in both directions.” Deputy Town Manager Shane Stueckle said two other projects—one on each end of the town—are under consideration. One extends Indio from Yucca Trail to the highway, and the other is on the west end of town. “One of the additional projects that we’ve put on the on the drawing board is the extension of Onaga from Kickapoo to Camino del Cielo to get residents off the highway. I think one of the concerns is the amount of traffic on Highway 62, especially at peak hours. This allows individuals to exit off the highway at Camino del Cielo, not competing with the regional traffic on their morning and evening commute times.” Even though these projects may not get started for another 10 years, Mayor George Huntington said that because the wheels of government turn slowly, the planning has to start now in order to get funding for these projects.
