A recently approved plan to widen the Newport Road interchange with the 215 was a hot potato during election season last year. FILE PHOTO
It was a contentious question during last November’s election: should the city build a Holland Road freeway overpass or widen the Newport Road interchange first?
The city recently approved a program that answered that question. The city will build the Newport interchange first – but this is not the plan the winners of the election were promoting.
Mayor Scott Mann and Deputy Mayor Wallace Edgerton, who were the victors in the election, campaigned on building the Holland bridge first.
Their opponents, former council member Darcy Kuenzi and former planning commissioner Bill Zimmerman, backed a plan to widen Newport Road first.
This is exactly what a $69 million plan that the City Council approved on Tuesday, June 18 entails.
The capital improvements program sets the expected date of construction on the $30 million Newport interchange for early 2014 – completion is expected in 2016 – but the $17 million Holland Road overpass is set to break in spring of 2016 and be finished by winter 2017, according to a city document.
The Newport project will add two new lanes in each direction and two new loop ramps, eliminating the left-turn freeway entrances, according to the document.
The Holland bridge will be four lanes wide and stretch from Haun to Hanover roads.
Mayor Mann addressed the subject during his State of the City speech on Wednesday, June 19 at Menifee Lakes Country Club.
“As many of you know, many of us campaigned on completing the Holland Road overpass before the Newport Road interchange widening,” he told a crowd of more than 100.
You can read more about the State of the City Address in this story.
Once he got into office, he said, he realized that plan was unfeasible.
“It made no economic sense, it made no engineering sense,” he said.
This is no surprise to Zimmerman, who said he researched the topic and delivered a similar message during his campaign.
“We’re responsible to do due diligence in order to make informed statements (to the public),” Zimmerman said.
The city put the Newport project first because, since planning for it began before the city incorporated, it is further along in the planning process, according to Menifee City Manager Rob Johnson.
“It’s 97 percent done,” he said.
Also, doing the Newport project first makes financial sense, he said, because the state gave the city an advance on its Measure A and gas tax revenue.
The city received $20 million, which is about half of the revenue it would get during the next 20 years, and it will pay less than 4 percent in interest, according to Johnson.
The city will use that money to pay $17 million toward the Newport project, and since it is a county project, the county will reimburse the city for its share of the cost, Johnson said.
The city will then be able to use that some money to pay for the Holland bridge, Johnson said.
If the city spent its money on the Holland bridge first, it would have no money to put down on the Newport project, he said.
“If we put $17 million to build Holland, we couldn’t do Newport,” Johnson said.
Edgerton supported the Holland bridge-first plan, but backed down only because the staff said it would be counterproductive, he said.
“I had no change of heart. I was informed by the staff that it would be impossible,” he said.
Darcy Kuenzi said she is happy the elected officials have approved the Newport-first plan.
“Regardless of how we get there, we’re there and I think that’s good,” she said.
