The state budget crisis in California may claim another victim - the Garden Grove Freeway, part of the state's $1 billion Traffic Congestion Relief Program, The Los Angeles Times reported Dec. 10.

The freeway, which follows state Highway 22 through part of Orange County, was scheduled to receive more than $400 million in improvements. Of that amount, the project could lose $174 million.

Arthur T. Leahy, chief executive of the Orange County Transportation Authority, told The Times that a failure to expand the route - a chronically congested road that has not been upgraded since opening more than 30 years ago - "is going to have a very serious negative impact."

State and local agencies say improvements to the freeway will include widening most of it, improving on-ramps and off-ramps, and building a single carpool lane in each direction.

The governor's office has proposed cutting $1.8 billion in transportation projects as part of its effort to eliminate the state's forecast $21 billion deficit, The Times said.