State officials on Friday announced the first projects likely to be bankrolled with the funds, part of a public works borrowing package championed by the governor. They include widening a portion of the 5 Freeway in the Los Angeles area, adding a carpool lane to a section of the 10 Freeway and installing a network of carpool lanes connecting the 22, 405 and 605 freeways in northern Orange County.

Left unfunded were several proposals that would have brought more relief to those major roads and to the heavily congested Riverside Freeway and other busy corridors.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, who chairs the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board, called the recommendations “an insult to the people of Los Angeles County” and “unacceptable.”

Los Angeles County, where 28% of Californians live and which has the most congested highways in the state, has been recommended for less than 12% of the funds on the project list.

The list was released by staff members at the California Transportation Commission, a state panel that oversees funding for highways and mass transit. It shows their recommendations for allocating the first $2.8 billion of the $19.9 billion in borrowing that voters approved for transportation.

The commission staff chose the projects from 149 proposed by the state Department of Transportation and regional agencies. The agencies proposed to spend nearly three times the amount the commission had to disburse in this first round. The money is designated for congestion relief on busy highway corridors.

The bond money, which doesn’t cover all costs, will be supplemented with state, federal and local funds.

The full board, whose nine members are appointed by the governor, will vote on the recommendations at the end of the month. Construction could begin on some of the projects by fall.

The list of projects to be funded may still grow. The bond measure authorizes initial spending of $4.5 billion, or $1.7 billion more than the commission staff is proposing. The staff recommended that the board wait until next year to allocate the rest of the money, when planning for some of the projects that didn’t make the first cut will be more complete.

There is no precise timetable for allocating all of the bond money. But local transportation planners will be pushing hard for the board to release more of that money now. They will make their case at a hearing before the full commission in Sacramento on Tuesday. The commission staff assumes that some requests will be granted.

The first cut is “a floor, not a ceiling,” said John Barna, executive director of the commission. “I imagine as we discuss this over the next week or so the number will grow.”

He acknowledged that the southern part of the state received less funding than it is entitled to under state formulas. He said the commission would rectify that by the time all of the funds were doled out.

But Barna defended the initial list, saying the bond money should not be dispensed according to how many people live in an area but on the projects that will do the most to relieve congestion in an overall region. The staff, he said, chose projects based on “readiness for construction, demonstrable congestion relief and connectivity benefits” and “geographic balance.”

The bond money that remains after the $4.5 billion is disbursed will also be earmarked specific purposes, among them congestion relief on local roads; repairs on 400 miles of California 99 in the central part of the state; public transportation, including light rail and buses; goods movement; emissions reduction; and transportation safety.

The 43 projects recommended Friday could save motorists statewide 270,000 hours of sitting in traffic, according to commission documents.

One that did make the cut in Los Angeles — at least partly — is the widening of Interstate 5 from the 605 Freeway to the Orange County line.

The 6.7-mile stretch is one of the oldest and least improved sections of the interstate. The highway creates one of the worst bottlenecks in the state near the Orange County line, where it narrows from 10 lanes to six.

Planners estimate that it will cost $1.15 billion to widen that stretch of the 5 Freeway to 10 lanes, including carpool lanes in each direction. They were hoping to receive $387 million in bond money for the project, but the commission staff recommended less than half that amount.

The commission staff declined to fund a $950-million project to add more than 10 miles of carpool lanes to the northbound 405 Freeway between the 10 and 101 freeways. With more than 300,000 cars a day, it is one of the busiest stretches of the 405. The staff was concerned that the start date for construction in late 2011 was too far off and suggested the board reconsider the project next year.

The project list does include funding for carpool lanes along a 10-mile section of the 5 between the 134 and 170 freeways.

It also includes money for carpool lanes on the 10 Freeway from Puente Avenue in Baldwin Park to Citrus Street in West Covina.

In Orange County, projects that were recommended include a network of carpool lanes that would connect the Garden Grove Freeway to the 405 between Seal Beach Boulevard and Valley View Street and from the 405 to the 605 between Katella Avenue and Seal Beach Boulevard.

The Orange County Transportation Authority will receive money to widen the northbound side of the 57 Freeway from the Riverside Freeway to Lambert Road.

“It is kind of hard for us not to say, ‘Thank you,’ ” said Arthur Leahy, executive director of the Orange County Transportation Authority, who noted that his county would get more money than much larger Los Angeles County.

But the commission recommended funding for only one of four projects to relieve congestion on the busy Riverside Freeway through northeastern Orange County. Caltrans studies show that commuters using the highway experience some of the worst delays in the state.

In Riverside County, one of seven projects was given the nod: a $62.3-million proposal to add lanes in each direction to Interstate 215 from Interstate 15 to Scott Road.

The county did not get recommendations for $752 million more it had requested for widenings, carpool lanes, interchanges and connectors on interstates 15 and 215 and the Riverside Freeway.

“We are disappointed,” said John Standiford, a spokesman for the Riverside County Transportation Commission. “But they have yet to allocate the rest of the money, and there is still the State Transportation Improvement Program.”

Standiford said that funding the Interstate 215 project was a “big priority” for the county and would help eliminate congestion caused by merging traffic.

San Bernardino County also got much less than it had hoped: $153 million of $531 million requested.

The money will be used to widen and improve interchanges along Interstate 10 through Fontana, Rialto, Redlands and Yucaipa. New ramps are also planned for the 210 Freeway and Interstate 215.

The commission did not approve funding for widenings and interchange work for Interstate 15 through Victor Valley, one of the fastest growing areas in the Inland Empire and an emerging cargo hub for the region.

“The 15 is a major commuting route and a truck route. But none of the high desert projects received funding,” said Cheryl Donahue, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino Assn. of Governments, a regional planning agency. “We are concerned about that.”

---

evan.halper@latimes.com

dan.weikel@latimes.com

*

(INFOBOX BELOW)

Recommended road improvements

State officials have announced the first highway construction projects expected to be funded with the bond money that voters approved in November. Here is the list, with funding amounts in millions of dollars.

County	Route	Description	Funding
Alameda	580	Eastbound HOV lane,
		Hacienda to Greenville	$63.1
Alameda/	80	Integrated fwy/local rd mgmt,
Contra Costa		Carquinez-Bay Bridge	55.3
Contra Costa	4	Widening, Somersville
		to Rt. 160	103.4
Contra Costa/	24	Caldecott Tunnel - 4th Bore
Alameda			203.2
El Dorado	50	HOV lanes, county line to
		Bass Lake interchange	23.5
Imperial	78	Brawley Bypass, Stage 3	29.3
Kern	46	Kecks Rd. 4-lane
		(Kecks Rd. to Rt. 33)	46.8
Kings/Tulare	198	4 lane expressway,
		Rt. 43 to Rt. 99	71.6
Los Angeles	5	HOV lanes, Rt. 134 to Rt. 170	73
Los Angeles	5	HOV lanes, O.C. line to
		Bloomfield (segs 1, 2, 3)	157.6
Los Angeles	10	HOV lanes, Puent
		Ave. to Citrus St.	97.3
Mendocino	101	Willits Bypass	177
Monterey	1	2-lane expressway,
		Salinas Rd. interchange	25.9
Napa/Solano	12	Jameson Canyon widening,
		Phase 1	74
Nevada	49	La Barr Meadows widening	18.6
Orange	22	HOV Connector, Rt. 22/405
		and 405/605	200
Orange	57	Widen northbound,
		Rt. 91 to Lambert Rd.	70
Orange	57	Widen northbound,
		Katella Ave. to Lincoln Ave.	20.1
Orange	91	Eastbound auxiliary lane,
		Rt. 241 to Rt. 71	71.4
Placer	80	HOV & auxiliary lanes,
		Sac. Co to Eureka Rd. (Phase 2)	20.6
Placer	80	Westbound HOV & auxiliary
		lanes, Eureka to Rt. 65 (Phase 3A)	31.3
Placer	65	Lincoln Bypass	73.7
Riverside	215	Widen, I-15 to Scott Rd.	38.6
Sacramento	50	HOV lanes, Watt Ave.
		to Sunrise Blvd., Phase 1	88.3
San Bernardino	10	Bridge widenings
		(HOV Phase 1)	85.7
San Bernardino	10	Widen ramps, auxiliary
		lanes: Cherry, Citrus & Cedar	19.2
San Bernardino	10	Westbound mixed flow lane,
		Live Oak Cyn. to Ford St.	26.5
San Bernardino	215	Route 210/215 connectors	22
San Diego	15	Managed lanes, Mira Mesa
		access ramp	25
San Diego	15	Managed lanes, Rt. 163 to Rt. 56	175
San Diego	5	North Coast Corridor,
		Stage 1A, Unit 1	36.4
San Diego	805	North Coast Corridor,
		Stage 1A, Unit 2	56
San Diego	805	2 sobound aux lanes,
		E St. to SR-54	11.8
San Luis Obispo	46	4-lane expressway,
		Geneseo to Almond (Whitley 1)	67.7
San Luis Obispo	101	Santa Maria River
		Bridge widening	58
Santa Barbara/	101	HOV lanes, Mussel Shoals to
Ventura		Casitas Pass Rd.	131.6
Santa Clara	101	Widen Yerba Buena to
		I-280/I-680	45.3
Santa Cruz	1	Auxiliary lanes,
		Morrissey to Soquel Ave.	12.7
Shasta	5	Cottonwood Hills truck climbing lanes	16
Sonoma	101	HOV lanes, Wilfred Ave.-
		Santa Rosa Ave.	48.4
Sonoma	101	HOV lanes, Railroad
		Ave.-Rohnert
		Park Expressway	34.9
Sonoma	101	HOV lanes, Steele-Windsor
		River (North Phase A)	57.9
Tuolumne	108	East Sonora bypass, Stage 2	17.2

Source: California Transportation Commission

When art restoration expert Margaret Nowosielska walked into the school auditorium to view the destruction six months ago, what was left was grimy and crumbling. Dark watermarks stained Roland and the other stockinged knights in armor. The murals’ bright colors had faded.

Once-common bay checkerspot given boost from devoted team of biologists, nature lovers

For the past few springs, people have flocked to the popular Edgewood Park and Natural Preserve in the hills above Redwood City to admire the wildflowers. But they haven’t seen a single bay checkerspot butterfly, once a vibrant presence in the rolling serpentine-rock grasslands.

 

On Thursday, a small band of biologists and park lovers hiked into the preserve, carrying a precious cargo that they hope will return the red-and-black butterfly to its home. They gently lifted hundreds of plump, inch-long black, bristly caterpillars from a cooler and placed them on the ground among their favorite food, the plantain, a native plant.

By April, they hope, the caterpillars will transform into butterflies and begin to populate part of the 467-acre park.

“Here we’re trying to make a little piece of the world better. We can’t sit back and check off extinctions,” said Stuart Weiss, the biologist in charge of the project.

The species is unique to the San Francisco Bay Area. In some years, the numbers of the remnant population on the Peninsula dip as low as tens of thousands. At Edgewood Park, exhaust emissions hurt the butterfly by fertilizing the invasive grasses, which choke off the plantains.

At another spot where the butterflies disappeared, Jasper Ridge in Palo Alto, Stanford University scientists found that as temperatures climbed and the frequency and severity of extremely wet and dry years increased in past decades, the Bay Area’s annual browning of terrain occurred earlier in many years, killing off plantains just at the time the caterpillars needed the food. The bay checkerspot couldn’t find food by moving because neighboring habitat had been covered by houses and highways.

The caterpillars that were set out Thursday at Edgewood had been hunkering down on another protected area since last spring, first feeding, then remaining dormant in cracks in the ground, waiting for the winter rains to green up the plantains. Then they could come out to eat.

“They find a sunny, slightly wind-sheltered spot, and curl up and warm in the sun,” said Weiss. He describes that stage of their life as “a good California lifestyle.”

That’s where Weiss and his helpers found 352 of the caterpillars on Wednesday, on the ground on Coyote Ridge, between San Jose and Morgan Hill. They took them to Edgewood on Thursday.

In a few days to a week, the caterpillars will pupate, weaving a silken pad on which they metamorphose from the larval stage to adulthood. Twenty-one days after pupation — if all goes well — they will emerge as butterflies.

They live only 10 to 14 days, long enough to sip nectar from goldfield wildflowers, mate and lay eggs that turn into caterpillars.

But in past years, things haven’t gone well in the Edgewood preserve, which borders Interstate 280. In the 1990s, with a new design of the catalytic converter, cars began spewing ammonia gas. The gas fertilized non-native Italian rye grass, which pushed out the plantain. The caterpillars lost their food supply.

Weiss, who got his Ph.D. studying under eminent entomologist Paul Ehrlich at Stanford, began to figure out the connection between the traffic, the ammonia in the emissions and the grasses in the late 1990s. He credits Ehrlich’s nearly four decades of research on the bay checkerspot — and the generations of scientists who studied at Ehrlich’s laboratory — with laying down the body of work that led to his discovery.

Weiss started the recovery efforts in 2003 with the permission of San Mateo County, which owns the preserve, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which protects threatened species. Working on grants through the San Mateo County Parks and Recreation Foundation and a group called Friends of Edgewood, a crew mowed down the invasive grass, leaving room for the reappearance of the plantain, or Plantago erecta.

This year, the plantain appeared after this season’s rains, and the caterpillars, at least the remaining ones on Coyote Ridge, followed.

On Wednesday, Weiss gathered the caterpillars along with Julia Bott of the foundation and Kathy Korbholz of Friends of Edgewood. Weiss kept the caterpillars in a cooler overnight, taking time to weigh each one.

The release Thursday, the first of three over several weeks, was a big day for those trying to save the butterfly. Korbholz had fought for the establishment of the park in 1993, helping to organize against the county’s plans to turn it into a golf course. In the ’60s and ’70s, developers had eyed it for a hotel and a state college.

But the presence of the imperiled bay checkerspot helped to save it. The special serpentine grassland is a disappearing ecosystem in California.

The bay checkerspot used to thrive in four or five populations bounded by southern Santa Clara County, San Bruno Mountain and the East Bay.

“Clouds of butterflies,” estimated at 100,000, flew in Edgewood Park 25 years ago, recalled Weiss, who was at Stanford then and now runs his own company, Creekside Center for Earth Observation.

The powerful El Niño of 1982-83 knocked back the population, and it hasn’t recovered. By 1997, the numbers were down to 9,000 caterpillars. On nearby Jasper Ridge, they disappeared in 1997. At Edgewood, scientists saw the last caterpillar in 2002, and after that, none.

The only bay checkerspots in the world are confined to Coyote Ridge and a few nearby areas in Santa Clara County, Weiss said.

Whether the bay checkerspots will establish at Edgewood is unknown. They can probably weather the rain that is forecast in the coming weeks as long as it doesn’t come when they start to fly.

Weiss is hopeful, at least for now. When he thinks of the range of the bay checkerspot, he thinks of Edgewood Park.

“It’s a watershed moment after years of trying to get the butterfly back.”

---

Bay checkerspot butterfly

Euphydryas editha bayensis

Status: Listed as threatened in 1987.

Range: Once found in four or five populations bounded by Santa Clara County, San Bruno Mountains and the East Bay. Now found only on Coyote Ridge between San Jose and Morgan Hill.

Numbers: In a good year, a few million butterflies. In a poor year, down to tens of thousands.

Life cycle: Female butterflies lay eggs on plantain plants, the food supply. The caterpillars emerge to feed, and then go dormant until the rainy season, when the plantain plants appear. In the spring, the adults emerge.

E-mail Jane Kay at jkay@sfchronicle.com.

Robust economy forecast

The Bay Area economy should post strong growth over the next decade as its high-wage industries expand, according to a report to be released today.

 ”The central message is that we have a strong economic base and lots of potential areas for growth, but there are challenges, too,” said Steven Levy, executive director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy, a Palo Alto research group that issued the report. “There is a lot of work to do but also a lot of opportunities.”

Levy predicts the region will add about 700,000 jobs, 850,000 residents and 400,000 households from 2005 to 2015.

The nine-county Bay Area’s gross regional product was $415 billion in 2005. If it were a separate country, it would have ranked 17th in the world in economic output, between the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Even with a pace of 70,000 new jobs a year, it will take Bay Area until 2010 to regain the job numbers it enjoyed in 2000 before the dot-com crash, which wiped out 400,000 jobs, the report said.

The region’s main challenge is a perennial one: quality-of-life issues that could make it increasingly harder to attract a talented workforce. The biggest issue is housing.

“Our worry is housing for workers because not everybody at the high-technology firms is a $100,000-plus worker,” Levy said. “We have plenty of need for housing workers across the spectrum.

“I think a housing price correction is needed and on the way,” Levy said. “I’m encouraged that so many cities like San Jose and San Francisco are taking active steps to find places for higher-density housing and are welcoming it.”

One trend that should help the housing crunch is the region’s changing age mix.

Demographic projections show that the aging of the Baby Boomer generation means that more than half the region’s population growth will be among people 55 and older. The other age group expected to see the biggest growth will be 20 to 34. Both those groups — retirees and young adults — tend to occupy smaller housing units in more dense urban areas, Levy said.

“I don’t see the Baby Boomers staying in their four- or five-bedroom houses without kids when they’re 65,” he said. “I think this will create increasing demand … for smaller units.”

By contrast, over the past two decades, much of the population growth was among people in the 35-to-55 age group, who are in the prime family-raising years and want to live in single-family homes.

Levy said the Bay Area’s advantage as an innovation economy should continue to fuel job growth, with new sectors such as biotechnology and clean tech taking their places alongside existing high-tech industry. At the same time, international trade, specifically with the Pacific Rim, is experiencing strong growth.

But the rising pace of productivity presents a potential snag for job growth. Companies more and more are expanding production and reaping profit without increasing payrolls.

Still, the report predicts that Bay Area jobs will grow by 19.1 percent from 2005 to 20015, outpacing the 17.3 percent growth rate for California and the 13.4 percent growth for the country.

---

E-mail Carolyn Said at csaid@sfchronicle.com.