State yanks Castroville pedestrian pathway funding.

While you’ve been enjoying low gas prices at the pump, the California Transportation Commission has been watching the pennies slip away. For this fiscal year, they allocated $193 million to dozens of transportation projects statewide, but at a Dec. 9 meeting, they got the bad news: They’re $150 million short for 2016, partly thanks to lower-than-projected gas tax revenue.

“Clearly, there is no money and it’s going to get worse,” Commissioner Jim Madaffer said.

That means backing off on many commitments, including a $6.6 million pledge to the Transportation Agency for Monterey County to build a bicycle and pedestrian walkway over the railroad tracks in Castroville.

The path would parallel Highway 156 connecting downtown Castroville to North Monterey County High School. Dozens of students get to school that way, on a route requiring them to go beyond the paved road, up and over an active railroad track, then along a muddy farm field for half a mile.

“It’s an obvious issue that needs correcting,” TAMC Planner Michael Zeller says.

D.L. Johnson, a band instructor at North County High for 31 years, also serves on TAMC’s bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee. “This was our number-one project,” he says. “I’ve watched kids walk home and realized, this is really bad.”

The Monterey County Board of Supervisors agreed Nov. 10 to pay $10,000 to Union Pacific Railroad for an easement, the final step after nearly another $1 million had already been spent on environmental review and design. The planned path is now indefinitely delayed.