Officials Offer to Delay Spending on Freeway

SOUTH PASADENA —  State and federal transportation officials have volunteered not to spend any money on constructing the Long Beach Freeway extension until a judge decides the merits of an anti-freeway lawsuit brought by the city of South Pasadena.

The statement in a recent legal brief was a response to a federal judge’s tentative ruling saying he intends to grant a preliminary injunction barring any money being spent on the extension’s construction.

In the brief, the U.S. Department of Transportation and Caltrans argued that volunteering not to spend construction money means the judge no longer has to rule on the injunction matter. However, U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson set a hearing for Thursday on the injunction, saying he will issue a detailed ruling.

South Pasadena officials say Caltrans attorneys fear having such an injunction order on the record before a complete trial begins on whether the freeway extension meets environmental standards. In his tentative ruling, Pregerson wrote that Caltrans and the Department of Transportation had not adequately studied such alternatives as improving traffic flow on surface streets and the completion of the Pasadena Blue Line.