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County OKs $4.4M in Transportation Funds for 16-City Fiber Network

The proposal raised the ire of business groups and transit advocates, who said broadband Internet should not qualify for funding through Measure M, the sales tax increase for transportation projects.

Los Angeles County transportation officials have approved $4.4 million in funding for a high-speed Internet system in the South Bay, over the objections of critics who said the project should not qualify for transportation funding.

A coalition of 16 cities, including Carson and Torrance, had pitched the fiber-optic cable ring as a way to improve congestion by allowing government employees to telecommute and by helping to synchronize traffic lights.

The proposal raised the ire of business groups and transit advocates, who said broadband Internet should not qualify for funding through Measure M, the sales tax increase for transportation projects.

“While a fiber-optic network may be a worthy project, it is not a transportation project,” said Maria Salinas, the president and chief executive of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. Funding the fiber project through Measure M is a “highly questionable decision,” she said.

After the vote Thursday, Metropolitan Transportation Authority director and Duarte Councilman John Fasana described the project as “a viable use of funds.”

The South Bay Cities Council of Governments, representing 16 cities and portions of Los Angeles County, first asked Metro for funding in February, saying a ring of fiber-optic cables connecting municipal locations across the South Bay could smooth traffic flow and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Faster Internet would create “trips not taken,” they said, encouraging telecommuting and creating a way to handle more municipal services digitally.

The motion passed unanimously, but with a caveat: Within two months, officials from Metro and the South Bay coalition had to agree on a transportation connection. Business and transit groups that had campaigned to support Measure M protested, questioning why Metro would approve a project if the transportation connection — the premise for the tax — was not yet clear.

South Bay officials and Metro later agreed to connect the fiber-optic ring to traffic data collection centers and traffic monitoring programs operated by Metro, Los Angeles County, Manhattan Beach and Torrance.

“If we’re really able to make some changes in terms of how lights are functioning, it’s going to have a dramatic impact on people’s commute times,” said Christian Horvath, the chairman of the South Bay Cities coalition and a Redondo Beach councilman.

That has not satisfied critics, who say the project’s connection to transportation improvements is still tenuous.

Construction is expected to take nine months to a year. A Los Angeles company, American Dark Fiber, will lay about 30 percent of the cable and will lease the remaining 70 percent from companies that have unused cable capacity, said CEO David Daigle. The system will allow the South Bay’s municipal governments to tap directly into fiber-optic cables and avoid paying a service provider. The service will cost $1,000 a month for speeds of 1 gigabyte per second, he said, a price that is below the market rate because Metro is paying for the lion’s share of the installation costs.

(c)2019 the Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.