Ted Owen/San Diego Business Journal
One of the advantages of living in North County is that every day when you head to work something new has happened overnight. The construction crews along with California Department of Transportation teams have been wearing night-vision goggles for a long time now. It is hard to believe, but in the black of night they can build billion-dollar freeways, bridges and on- and off-ramps. I live in Escondido and travel each day to Carlsbad. As I approach the freeway on-ramp at Via Rancho Parkway I have to slow to a snail’s pace to see where the ramp has been moved to overnight. The other day I saw four cars go the way they thought was correct and ended up looking at the busy end of a giant bulldozer.This small example of growing pains is just one in dozens going on across the county. Here are two examples of interconnecting arteries that at one time did not even exist:
• In San Marcos the new extension of Twin Oaks is slated for a ribbon-cutting ceremony Sept. 6. The No. 1 goal of the roadway is to connect the 8,000-resident community of San Elijo Hills with the rest of the city. Nearly one-third of the city has had to find alternative routes to travel in an east-west direction. San Marcos leaders expect more than 25,000 vehicles to use the new 2.4-mile route by 2010. Rancho Santa Fe Road has been the alternative of choice during the endless wait for the new connector. The $25 million project was originally penciled to open in the summer of 2006. The terrain used for the carving out of the new artery was some of the toughest in the region to traverse. READ THE ENTIRE SAN DIEGO BUSINESS JOURNAL ARTICLE
