Oxnard, Port of Hueneme get $95M for infrastructure projects

Brian J. Varela, Ventura County Star
Updated ·2 min read
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Vehicle drive across railroad tracks at the intersection of Rice Avenue and Fifth Street in Oxnard at the site of a planned overpass in March. The state awarded Oxnard and the Port of Hueneme a combined $95 million to help fund infrastructure projects.
Vehicle drive across railroad tracks at the intersection of Rice Avenue and Fifth Street in Oxnard at the site of a planned overpass in March. The state awarded Oxnard and the Port of Hueneme a combined $95 million to help fund infrastructure projects.

The city of Oxnard and the Port of Hueneme are getting a combined $95 million in state funding for infrastructure projects.

Oxnard and the Ventura County Transportation Commission will receive about $15 million to help build a bridge on Rice Avenue that will allow vehicles to pass over railroad tracks. The Port of Hueneme is slated to receive $80 million for its Port Action, Climate and Environment Development projects, or PACED.

The funding is part of a $1.5 billion investment by the state aimed at strengthening supply chains and curbing carbon emissions.

“No other state has a supply chain as critical to the national and global economy as California,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a news release announcing the funding Thursday.

Thirteen projects across the state received $350 million from the California State Transportation Agency to do away with street-level rail crossings, the release said.

Among them was Oxnard’s Rice Avenue bridge.

In 2015, a Metrolink train crashed into a utility truck towing a trailer after the truck got stuck on the railroad tracks at Rice and Fifth Street. The incident injured more than 30 people and left a Metrolink engineer dead.

The planned bridge will provide a crossing over the tracks and Fifth Street. The approximately $133 million project is expected to be completed in fall 2027, state documents show.

The Port of Hueneme is receiving about $80 million to revitalize the port and reduce its carbon footprint.

The grant will go toward removing dilapidated buildings, deepening berths and installing zero-emission plug-in units for containers. The funding will also support power and emissions control systems that make vessels emission-free and will be used to purchase zero-emission cargo handling equipment.

“We will be in a better position to create more job opportunities for local residents to support vital port operations and the deployment of clean technologies,” Jess Herrera, president of the Oxnard Harbor Commission, said in a news release Friday.

The total cost of the port's development projects is about $217 million, state documents show.

Brian J. Varela covers Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Camarillo. He can be reached at brian.varela@vcstar.com or 805-477-8014. You can also find him on Twitter @BrianVarela805.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: State awards Oxnard, Port of Hueneme a combined $95 million