It May Get Rough for a While, But New Infrastructure Augers Smooth Riding Later

When it comes to sensitive items like road and bridge infrastructure, people can get downright nasty. Before it happens, they complain about congestion and potholes but while it is getting repaired, they go almost crazy.

And so things may get a bit touchy in the old neighborhood as the $300 million dollars for road repair rolls into Coachella Valley. Three hundred million seems like quite a chunk for just widening a bunch of roadways, construction, which includes handling five different Interstate 10, interchanges. Yes, with this type of construction, the cup is always half empty or half full. And it's up to us to figure what can make us happier. I prefer to take the cup half full now but soon-to-run-over with happiness approach. It's healthier and, from a real estate and economic development perspective, it certainly makes sense.

But for those who live and ride in the Desert, it has been obvious for a long time that a lot of our favorite pathways are getting too congested. And for those, like us, in the know- about some serious future problems   that will occur unless this happens- the immediacy of the timetable for fixing all this is welcome and appreciated. The Coachella Valley Government Association has put a lot of welcome effort into this.  Here's what's going to happen:

On October 2008, Palm/Drive Gene Autry starts to be widened followed soon by the December 2008 start date Bob Hope Drive's widening process to begin. Then in July 2009, the Date Palm Drive gets a widely awaited overhaul. In October 2009, Indian Canyon Drive will be widened and, finally, the ever-growing Jefferson Street will commence its widening project in October of 2010.

Is there going to be a downside to this? Of course. Are we going to be very frustrated until 2012 when this is over? Absolutely.  Is it worth the one-half sent transportation tax in effect until 2039? Indubitably.

The Valley is growing and for the sake of our future comfort and the people who will buy into the richness of our Palm Springs Real Estate or tourist destinations, we need them to get to work or to their restaurants, hotels, charity affairs, film festivals, hiking trails- expeditiously as possible. But you know something? This isn't the same Coachella Valley it was twenty years ago. It is growing all the time- and the exciting wave of casinos have ratcheted up the traffic in the future.  Yes, each project will take two years but isn't it worth it.

The widening is going to take $170 million but there are other components of infrastructure that will take more money. There will be improvements in the grading separation along State Route 86 over the Highway 86's Union Pacific tracks. There will be other improvements directly to Highway 86 as well a few bridges on Highway 111 and Indio. The improvements, all told, will exceed this special allotment, coming to around $367 million. Some of these funds will come from other government agencies like the California Department of Transportation and the Riverside Country Transpiration Fee.

All of this has finally happened because of the passage of the Coachella Valley Multiple Species Plan, which had held up some of these long awaited changes.