Experts Propose Revamping Freeway Access for I-5
Transportation: Ballpark, Downtown Congestion Prompt Consideration
BY LEE ZION
Staff Writer
As the countdown continues to the opening of the San Diego Padres’ new ballpark, traffic experts are looking at revamping freeway access to Downtown to accommodate it.
The San Diego Association of Governments, the California Department of Transportation, the city of San Diego and others are considering a proposal to accommodate increased freeway traffic to the Downtown area. The proposal, creating a special “collector-distributor road” alongside Interstate 5, would smooth out traffic moving between the freeway and Highways 94 and 163, said Mike Hix, a project planner with Sandag.
Hix said the $30 million proposal is part of a larger study focusing on building new interchanges along I-5 throughout much of San Diego and National City. The larger study considers improvements to I-5 from Sea World Drive down to Highway 54, with $935 million in projects funded by state and federal gas tax money.
In Downtown, traffic studies did not reflect the cumulative impacts on traffic over the past decade, as San Diego continued to grow. An environmental impact report for the Downtown ballpark, for example, had acknowledged freeway deficiencies, but didn’t offer a timetable for improvements, he said.
The new report will look at access to Downtown and improved mobility along the freeways near Downtown, Hix said.
“In that area, you’ve got so many ramps that come on and off the freeway, that contributes to the congestion in the heart of Downtown there. So what the plan proposes is, in essence, a parallel set of ramps alongside the freeway,” he said.
This diverts the traffic exiting from and entering the freeway onto the parallel ramps, reducing traffic congestion on the main lanes of the freeway, Hix said.
Already, there are a series of long freeway entrance and exit ramps on either side of Interstate 5. The collector-distributor system would link these ramps together, he said.
The system would also keep some trips off I-5 altogether. Since the freeway interrupts several city streets, drivers often have to get on the freeway for lack of an alternative , and the parallel lanes would be just such an alternative, Hix said.
Project Not Just About Ballpark
Peter Hall, president of the Centre City Development Corp., said the freeway project wasn’t just about the ballpark. Padres games will account for about 1 percent of the total impact to traffic around Downtown.
Increased development in the urban core area has more of an effect on freeway congestion. Other factors include more business at the Convention Center and more cargo traffic at San Diego’s marine terminal, Hall said.
However, the ballpark will create some congestion. After a ball game ends, thousands of people will all try to leave the area at the same time.
Assuming the fans don’t stick around to dine in the nearby Gaslamp Quarter after the game, and they also don’t take public transit, then this creates a mass of cars. Existing freeway ramps can’t handle such a load all at once, he said.
Hall supported the project, saying the city was taking a look at its freeway needs long beyond when the ballpark opens in 2004
“I’m really glad it’s being done. It’s important to look 10, 20 years out with respect to our mobility in the region,” he said.