A solution for the congestion that regularly clogs the state Route 78 access to Interstate 5 in Oceanside is more than a decade in the future, and North County drivers are not pleased. Preliminary planning began in 2012 for onramps to replace the traffic lights that back up traffic entering southbound I-5 from the westbound lanes of the 78 and from eastbound Vista Way. However, more public engagement, traffic studies, an environmental impact report and, perhaps most important, funding are needed, Caltrans officials said. Construction is tentatively set for 2033-2037. “This project has started and stopped a few times,” said Steve Welborn, public affairs manager and legislative affairs liaison for Caltrans, in a presentation last week to the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce. “We have gone back to the drawing board again.” Environmental studies are now set to be completed by 2029. Design work is scheduled for 2029 through 2032, pending funding, and construction is tentatively set for 2033 through 2037, also pending funding, according the the Caltrans website. No estimate has been released of the interchange project’s construction costs, which will be high. At least $8 million has been allocated so far for preliminary design and environmental work. Rep. Mike Levin, D-San Capistrano, San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond and Sen. Catherine Blakespear, D-Encinitas, then the mayor of Encinitas, held a news conference in Oceanside in January 2022 to announce the interchange could be funded and built within two years with money from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed in late 2021. “For too long, I’m sure everyone knows, we’ve been sitting bumper-to-bumper on Highway 78,” Desmond said at the time. “It’s time for us to come up with a solution.” The project could be completed in less than two years if funding were approved, the elected officials said. But the plan has repeatedly stalled. Contributing to the delay is an unanticipated shortfall in the revenue available from the half-cent sales tax known as TransNet approved by San Diego County voters. TransNet revenue is used with state and grants to pay for transportation projects. A different plan to add managed lanes, which charge some drivers a toll, is further along for the Route 78-Interstate 15 interchange in Escondido and San Marcos. That project is estimated to cost $450 million. Final environmental documents for the I-15 project are expected to be finished this year, and construction could begin in 2029 if funding becomes available, according to Caltrans. Not everyone at the Chamber’s “emerging issues” meeting Thursday was pleased with the progress report. “Oceanside has been the red-headed stepchild of the entire region,” said former Oceanside Councilman Jack Feller. The county’s northernmost coastal city is last in line for most freeway maintenance and improvements, Feller said. Construction money often is allocated first to more populous areas near downtown San Diego. In another North County project, Caltrans has been working with the San Diego Association of Governments, the regional planning agency, for the past year to install HOV lanes on I-5 between SR-78 and Harbor Drive. Caltrans began adding the lanes in Solana Beach in 2017 and has proceeded north from there in phases. A final section north of Harbor Drive to the Orange County border is planned, but so far not scheduled or funded. The 13 miles of completed HOV lanes are intended to reduce travel times for carpoolers and cut greenhouse emissions from slow or idling vehicles. The project also includes aesthetic improvements such as sound walls and additional landscaping. The highway improvements are part of what the agencies call the North Coast Corridor program, a decades-long program to improve coastal North County transportation in all its forms, from railway mass transit and freeway driving to bicycle riding and walking. The program also includes mitigation money for things such as wetlands restoration to compensate for the additional development.