After 14 years in limbo, North County 5/78 interchange back in the spotlight

In Jim Fogel’s family, there have been five accidents near the Interstate 5 and State Route 78 interchange.

The Oceanside resident is not alone in his issues with the spot. He was just one of around 200 people who showed up to a Caltrans and San Diego Association of Governments public input session for long-awaited potential improvements to the major thoroughfare that passes through Oceanside and Carlsbad. 

“It’s just not designed for the type of traffic that we have,” said Tracey D’Aoust Roberts, the deputy district director of environmental for Caltrans. “So we have to get with the times and change the way that it’s structured with different options so that we can try and improve the bottlenecks and congestion.”

But despite the clear issues with the area — weaving cars, traffic congestion and spillover onto the neighboring streets — it’s less clear how to fix it. Improvement projects have started and stopped over the years due to a lack of public support or other projects getting priority.  D’Aoust Roberts said the time is finally here for the project, and Wednesday night kicked off the required “scoping” session in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act. 

It was hosted at South Oceanside Elementary School, a spot residents are worried would have much more traffic with any changes. GT Wharton, who runs the safe streets and walkable communities nonprofit Strong Towns Oceanside, said he has long been worried about the cars that roll through the stop sign by the school. 

Oceanside Mayor Esther Sanchez told inewsource it’s “incredibly critical” to make sure nothing happens to the surrounding community and that a new plan wouldn’t impede the Buena Vista Lagoon Restoration. 

“The idea of added traffic would really just destroy this community,” Sanchez said. “Parents would not want to have their kids in a more dangerous situation with added traffic and people in a hurry to get onto the freeway.” 

The plans

Caltrans presented three plans on Wednesday night, though they are expected to change with feedback. They had varying degrees of changes: extending existing auxiliary lanes, building direct freeway-to-freeway connectors and removing the stoplight that currently sits in the intersection. 

Dozens of people wrote comments with their complaints and suggestions. People have until June 13 to submit feedback online. 

But before even entering Wednesday night’s event, there was already pushback from San Diego environmentalists. Activists from climate group SanDiego350, including North County high schoolers KC Gupta and Carlos Lopez, chanted: “What do we want? Clean, safe streets. When do we want it? Now.”

“All three solutions are going to result in increased traffic, increased vehicle miles traveled, more pollution, more noise and increased danger on the streets in the South Oceanside community,” said Chris Roberts, co-leader of the group’s transportation team. 

Roberts lives in Carmel Valley, and opposes the suburban sprawl he has seen throughout San Diego County. He advocates for governments to spend money on alternatives to cars, like public transit oriented development.

Another Oceanside resident agreed. 

“They need to stop making things better for cars,” Joan Bockman said. “Cars already have everything, and it’s time to start fixing other things.”

The I-5/SR-78 Interchange Improvements Project is a locally and state-funded project, with $12 million available for the preliminary design and environmental studies. The environmental review period will be from 2024 to 2029, design from 2029-2034 and construction from 2034 to 2038. Additional funding will need to be identified for design and construction.

“Any time you build a big project like this, somebody’s gonna get impacted,” said Mark Phelan, an Oceanside resident and retired Caltrans employee. “What I see from these three alternatives is a great effort to really not impact any of the people living around the project, so you get less from the project than maybe you want.”