U.S. Expected to Back Long Beach Freeway Extension

Federal officials today are expected to back plans for the much-delayed Long Beach Freeway extension, contingent on strict conditions to reduce environmental and other concerns for the communities that have battled the project for four decades.

The announcement would mark the largest step yet toward completion of the proposed 6.2-mile route, which would connect the San Bernardino and Foothill freeways, split South Pasadena and snake through the Eastside and parts of Pasadena.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, laid out a host of requirements that Caltrans and other agencies must meet before construction. But their tentative approval removes one of largest remaining obstacles to the project.

“This is a very significant action by the federal government,” said James Drago, a Caltrans spokesman. “It breaks the logjam.”

Although the extension has not been approved, the officials said it has the backing of the Clinton administration and U.S. Department of Transportation. They cautioned that Caltrans must meet the requirements, which include routing the freeway below street level in the Eastside community of El Sereno, which has opposed the project in a civil rights suit.

One federal official said: “This is not a full-steam-ahead commitment to go out and build right now.”

Drago vowed that Caltrans would meet all requirements.

“We have a record of meeting projects over the years, however difficult,” Drago added.

The most enthusiastic estimates have been that construction would not start until 2005. First, the freeway must be designed in cooperation with committees representing the affected cities. Then road improvements in cities in the freeway’s path must be completed.

Other than the still-active El Sereno suit, two more major obstacles remain:

* The city of South Pasadena, which filed a lawsuit against it in 1973, has vowed an “Armageddon lawsuit” to kill the project.

* Funding for the project, estimated at $1.4 billion before the latest alterations, must be secured.

Today’s expected announcement comes a month after a meeting in Washington between officials at the Federal Highway Administration and representatives of the affected areas--El Sereno, Alhambra, South Pasadena and Pasadena.

That meeting broke five years of silence from the federal government over whether it was likely to approve the extension. Participants were presented with a draft plan of the route. The federal officials Thursday said that changes were made in that plan as a result of comments from the affected cities. The final product is the furthest the federal government has gone to lessen the impact of a freeway on local communities.

“We are trying to come up with a balance that meets all the specific needs of the region and all the community concerns,” one official said. “We think we have struck that balance.”

Members of the two communities that have fought the extension--El Sereno and South Pasadena--did not.

“This so-called boutique freeway will devastate our community,” said South Pasadena Councilman Harry Knapp. “We are going to court.”

El Sereno activists expressed skepticism about promises to send much of the freeway below street level through the neighborhood and said they would press forward with their lawsuit against Caltrans.

“We have no faith in Caltrans because of their dealings in the past with us. We still don’t feel we’re any part of these measures,” said activist Jesse Granados.

Officials in Alhambra, which last year filed suit to compel the construction of the freeway because side traffic allegedly was clogging their streets, were thrilled.

“I have been pushing for this freeway for 32 years. I am elated,” said Alhambra Councilman Talmage Burke, a councilman for 46 years.

Added Caltrans Director James van Loben Sels: “This is great news for California.”

Federal officials said today’s announcement is not a formal Record of Decision, which is required for construction to proceed. That document is being written based on these plans and will be considered for approval by another office of the Federal Highway Administration.

They also said that the project could be reevaluated in the future, when environmental impact laws may be different.

Although it is narrower than first planned, the extension would plow through several historic districts, uproot more than 6,000 trees and displace more than 900 houses. South Pasadena has battled strenuously, saying the extension would kill the city’s quaint character.

A newer opponent to the extension is the bloc of El Sereno activists, who joined the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and other groups filing a 1995 suit alleging that the extension did not provide their largely Latino neighborhood with the same anti-pollution and historic preservation safeguards received by South Pasadena and Pasadena.

Federal officials said that they were very sensitive to El Sereno’s concerns and that the project would be “null and void” unless at least 80% of that stretch of the freeway was below street level, including some tunnels. They also said they would provide public money to assist homeowners and renters displaced by the project.

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Times staff writer Ken Ellingwood contributed to this story.