San Diego board OKs environmental report for Mid-Coast trolley extension

The San Diego Association of Governments' (SANDAG) board last week certified California's environmental document for the Mid-Coast trolley extension. The certification will allow SANDAG officials to seek federal funding for the project and advance it to the construction phase.

The board's approval of the final Environmental Impact Report comes on the heels of the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) announcement that it had issued environmental approval for the project. The next step is to seek approval from the FTA to enter into final engineering and secure a full funding grant agreement from the FTA's New Starts program.

Anticipated in late 2015, the federal grant would provide 50 percent of the funding for the $2 billion project. Half of the funding would come from the region’s TransNet half-cent sales tax for transportation.

"We have been working toward this milestone for many years," said Supervisor Ron Roberts, a SANDAG board member and chair of the Mid-Coast Corridor Transit Project Working Group, in a press release. "We look forward to securing federal funding for the project next year and starting construction on this long-awaited regional transit project."

An extension of the San Diego Trolley Blue Line, the MidCoast Corridor trolley project will provide a no-transfer ride from the international border and communities south of downtown San Diego to the University of California in San Diego and University City.