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Highway 99 'interstate' a dream

The Bakersfield Californian | Tuesday, Apr 29 2008 8:17 PM

Last Updated: Tuesday, Apr 29 2008 8:18 PM

The plan to "upgrade" Highway 99 to federal interstate standards is, at best, still in its conceptualization or "project study" stage. Some supposedly knowledgeable persons in the Kern Council of Governments and an adjunct city agency dealing with Kern's freeways are still not even aware of this project.

The main impact of this project proposal on the City of Bakersfield, if it materializes, would be the interchanges and on-ramp/off-ramp traffic during the construction stage. Highway 99 is the sole north-south freeway that receives and feeds traffic to Bakersfield. Whether the city or county would cough out some money for this federal undertaking (based on an increased sales tax or whatever) depends on bureaucracies wheeling/dealing or their tweaking of funding mechanisms.

There's no question that Highway 99 needs some improvement. It is a vital north-south artery that serves California's Central Valley. An expanding population and global economy necessitate such evolution, not only of our freeways, but also of other infrastructures.

Our immediate transportation need, however, is not the upgrading of Highway 99. The realization of a circumferential "beltway system" that connects to Interstate 5 and Highway 99 and a functional east-west freeway that does not dead-end into a commercial complex should be our immediate goal. This would decongest the clogged-up streets in Bakersfield. In this regard, everybody should be on the same page.

Because of the attendant bureaucratic requirements, a federal project moves like a lumbering ship coming to roost in a dockyard. It would take many years before our city's beltway system could be fully realized. By then, because of growth and the intricacies of social evolution, we might be needing another round of improvements to our transportation system.

Manuel D. Fuderanan is a member of the Opinion section's Sounding Board and Bakersfield city employee. He contributed this article in response to a recent Sounding Board question.