Opening the Throat

by Councilman Scott Peters
September 2003

I am pleased to announce that at 10:30 a.m. on September 10th at the end of the cul-de-sac next to the Children's School, Mayor Murphy and I will officially open the Throat! Everyone in La Jolla is invited to this celebration, and it is definitely an event to celebrate. I was shopping in the village last weekend and a gentleman at one of the stores told me that he and his employees had been having a much easier time getting in and out of La Jolla each day. Stories like that and the conspicuous lack of calls from my wife's hairdresser to my office show that the reconfiguration of the intersection is working as planned.

The completion of this project is a testament to how much can be accomplished in La Jolla when the community comes together for a common goal. In 1997 then Mayor Golding created the Mayor's Traffic and Transportation Task force to look at this and other traffic issues affecting La Jolla. One of the unanimous recommendations from this task force was to move forward with the reconfiguration of the Throat. That recommendation languished for two years, and one of my first acts as a member of the City Council was to meet with the engineering department and get the project moving.

The completion of this project has been my number one infrastructure priority in La Jolla. The intersection is the second busiest in San Diego, with over 70,000 average daily trips making their way through the intersection. The multiple turn lanes and crisscrossing of cars has been the bane of our commuting lives for decades. This was a project that needed to be completed, so we worked hard to get it done and get it done on time. Large projects like this are not easy to keep on track so we kept the pressure on the project staff to make sure they met their deadline. They did a great job and made sure that the project would only affect one summer. I'd like to thank the men and women of the City's Engineering and Capital Projects Department for their excellent work, and thank the contractors and workers who worked so hard to keep this project moving.

The reconfiguration gave us the opportunity to replace 80-year-old water and sewer lines that were some of the oldest in San Diego. Most La Jollans remember what seemed like monthly water line breaks that disrupted water service to residents and caused huge traffic backups. These new water lines should last for the next 80 years and provide a safer and more reliable water supply for the La Jolla community. We also have a newly renamed La Jolla Parkway for better community identification and placed new pavement up Torrey Pines Road.

This project has been difficult and at times infuriating for residents of La Jolla. I have lived it with you each day and have experienced the worst and now the best of this important project. I want especially to thank the members of our community that conceived and supported this project, especially the members of the Task Force: Robert Thiele, Anthony Hai, Chuck Berke, Marty McGee, George Hauer, Mark Oliver, Ron Zappardino, Peter Wagener, James Alcorn, Courtney Coyle, C.A. Marengo, Orrin Gabsch, Mark Lyon, Bill Price, Martin Mosier, and Chris Stokes. I appreciate all the patience La Jollans have shown throughout this project and hope you all enjoy the traffic relief.