Meeting to Address Freeway Extension

A Federal Highway Administration spokesman said Wednesday no final decision on the fate of the Long Beach Freeway extension will be announced at a meeting that local officials will attend in Washington next week.

“There will be no record of decision at this meeting,” said administration spokesman Jim Pinkelman, referring to the formal name for a ruling. “That wasn’t what the meeting [is to be] about.”

Rather, Pinkelman said, the session is aimed at finding “common ground” among opposing interests that might break the logjam over the long-contested construction project.

Federal officials this week summoned leaders from communities that would be affected by the freeway--Alhambra, South Pasadena, Los Angeles and Pasadena--plus congressional representatives. The Oct. 3 meeting also will include preservationists and representatives from the President’s Council on Environmental Quality.

The highway administration’s terseness on details of the planned meeting fueled speculation that the federal government planned to announce a decision on whether it will allow the project to proceed.

“We were under the impression that a decision-making process is about to be completed,” said Alhambra City Atty. Lee Dolley, who will attend the meeting.

An aide to Rep. James Rogan (R-Glendale), who represents Pasadena and South Pasadena and has ardently opposed the freeway, said administration officials indicated they would present a position paper laying out their views on the project.

“It is farther than they have gone before,” said the aide, David Joergenson.

He said the officials also said that before taking action on the extension proposal, they are considering elements of an alternative scheme that would attempt to improve local traffic flow on surface streets.

Meanwhile, Caltrans has sketched an alternative construction design that would send the proposed freeway below ground as it passes through El Sereno. It remained unclear whether that new design would satisfy freeway opponents who have sued to block construction on grounds that it is environmentally unsound.

The lawsuit, filed by environmental groups and El Sereno residents, is one of several legal fights over the 6.2-mile extension that has pitted communities against each other for more than 20 years.

The $1.4-billion extension would link the Foothill Freeway with the San Bernardino Freeway, but even if it is approved, construction would not begin until after 2005.

Times staff writers Nicholas Riccardi and Richard Simon contributed to this story.