If the City is relying on developers' traffic impact fees to provide the necessary local-match funding, I have a feeling we'll be waiting a looooooooong time.  Because of the burst of the housing market bubble and the mortgage market meltdown, major developers are pulling up stakes and won't be back for at least ten to twenty years.  There won't be much in the way of new developments to provide impact fees.  There are, and will continue to be, more houses than people for years to come.  The only chance we have in securing the TRIP funds is to revisit the 1/2 cent sales tax increase that we so foolishly discarded at the polls the last time around.  But the good citizens of Kern County seem to be too shortsighted to see that.  They get all balled up in what should have been done by public officials in the past, that they want to punish the current decision makers by not approving the ridiculously small local sales tax increase.  Get OVER it!  Quit looking behind you and look ahead!

Couch sounds like he knows what he is taking about.

You could hardly locate Westside any further south and still be NOR. Those left tangling in between the Westpark transfer and Hwy 99. Those along Real road etc. Would have better access to Westside than those in the area of Olive Drive.

The information we need, is what amount of traffic, on 58 actually heads through Bakersfield, down Rosedale hwy all the way to I-5 or reverse. Without some sort of stop over.

What percentage goes north and south on 99 from 58?

 

If we are only talking about some 50% of the traffic. Diverted to a very expensive hwy, located at the southern most edge of a population district. We are indeed talking about more than a huge inconvenience. We are talking about more than a series of multiple lies and deceptions. We are talking about a tremendous waste of money. Money that must be borrowed. Money that must be raised through increased taxes. Money that will be taken from business and civilians that will never have the need or purpose of any sort,  to use this historically stupid project.

Okay, let's get real. 'Westpark' is not some treasured neighborhood. Drive up Real Road or in through those areas.Those aren't pristine, historic houses worth saving. However, the sheer number of homes and businesses in that area will make it cost-prohibitive.

Far better options, if we must tie 58 into the Westside Parkway, are to build access from 99 to it and let 58 use a short section of 99; run the loop off at Union (which would take out some businesses of highly questionable value--most of it is an eyesorej); or run it off at Washington, which to my mind looks to be the best option. A long section of that goes through industrial warehousing and really cheap, rundown homes. It would probably improve the city, frankly, to take out some of those ramshackle hovels.

Alternative A and B just don't make financial sense, though I have no sentimental nor financial stake in that area. It's going to be a matter of weighing the cost of construction AND property acquisition. The homes and businesses west of 99 will cost far more to acquire than the east side options. Cheapest of all would be C, which may make the most sense.

And, Couch is right. None of these options really addresses the biggest problems of gridlock and efficient transportation. We've got north and south covered, but east-west and access to them all is nonexistent. This doesn't do it. And we've already paid for a friggin' study that would solve 99 percent of the problems.

NOON, 

The South side parkway would not interrupt any current development. A city loop could be designed that did not impact any current development.

There is no project possible in the imaginable future. We are broke. Developers will not pay increased fees enough to cover costs.. Housing is busted. And I along with most of the county will not pay to bail out what in fact is no more than the old Laborde Ranch project. A project that was awash in unsavory shenanigans.

Westpark will not only interrupt property that was assured of it's future three times. But it will create an island of property between it and 99 that will in effect become useless. But not covered by eminent domain. And left to crumble in it's own waste.

My understanding is that Cal Trans will not allow another intersection with 99 in the city limits of Bakersfield.

Parallel sections of 58 directly adjacent to 99 would at least not sprout the wasteland that Westpark will.

But then we are left with the reality that the problem is with peak hour traffic. Not through traffic.

Look at N. & S. 99. Traffic flows free during the off hours. Yet even after millions of dollars of upgrades. Traffic is horrible dangerous and backed up in two lanes of traffic because of egress problems.

These problems are not due to bad engineering. Rather because the 99 is now located on the Far east side of the population district is serves. (At least it started on the west side of growth)

Westside will from it first shovel of dirt. Be located on the furthest south section of land it could possible be built on.

Any farther south and it would not be NOR. It will be absolutely impossible that this project could solve rush hour traffic even from it's origin. It was designed wrong a decade ago.. No different than the poorly grafted dead end 58.