‘Magic bus’ that survived Palisades Fire returns fully restored to LA Auto Show

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00:00A planned bike path here along the LA River went from a $365 million project to $1 billion.

00:06And now the county wants to use state funds to foot that bill.

00:12That bike path was approved by voters in 2016 as part of Measure M to raise the sales tax to

00:17help pay for numerous projects. Originally, the eight-mile path was supposed to cost $365 million.

00:23But nine years later, that project has stalled and the price tag has reached a billion dollars.

00:28If we had the money that it would have taken when we first started talking about this nine years ago,

00:32as you say, or whatever time you want to link it to, it would have been a heck of a lot cheaper.

00:36Metro has taken a very long time in coming up with a plan, and the plan that they have, they can't afford.

00:42Besides costs naturally rising, Schneider said the construction plan was too pricey to begin with.

00:46They dramatically over-engineered it. For example, instead of having a bike path on one side of the

00:54river, with connections at existing over-crossings, they insisted that the path is on both sides of

01:00the river. They've always chosen the most expensive possible option. And don't get me wrong, I think

01:05their plan's beautiful. If money was no object, I would love it.

01:09Blumenfield said his district has lined up $60 million for the project.

01:12The bids came back at closer to $90 million, so that wasn't able to happen. So we're now

01:21rebidding it. While it will take the partnership of districts like Blumenfield's,

01:26this is an LA Metro project. There's been no leader on the Metro board that's made this project a

01:31priority. So that's kind of how Metro works. There's a lot of projects, and unless you have

01:35a champion, it doesn't move very quickly. Last month, Metro officials said there's around $433

01:39million available for the project, well short of a billion. Officials have since floored the idea of

01:44getting state grants to bridge the gap. 25% of Californians live in LA County, but that would mean the

01:49other 75% would help foot the bill. Other money could come from an agreement between numerous

01:54entities to get funding elsewhere. Cobbling together this kind of money is never an easy,

01:58easy task. The hope was to have this ready for the 2028 Olympic Games in LA.

02:03There's no realistic way Metro's plan gets done. The existing plan gets done by 2028.

02:08For Straight Arrow News, I'm Dan Levin at the LA River. For more unbiased,

02:12fact-driven news, download the Straight Arrow News mobile app today, or go to san.com.