Freeway Job Starts : Ramps Being Built With Private Money

Construction began Monday on new on- and off-ramps on the southbound Golden State Freeway near Rye Canyon Road in Valencia, the first freeway improvement in California fully paid for by a private company.

State officials at a ceremony at the site of the project, the first phase of a $1.2-million freeway improvement financed by Newhall Land & Farming, praised the company for being a leader in underwriting freeway system improvements.

“We are hopeful that many more corporations will see this as an opportunity to get business development going, and that many more construction projects will get started using private financing,” said Chuck Ford, Caltrans deputy district director.

More than $60 million in state highway construction is in various stages of development through private-public partnerships, Ford said.

In the past, private companies have paid some of the expense of freeway ramp improvements. But state Department of Transportation officials said that, where the benefit of a freeway improvement is primarily to a local area or firm, requiring private payment has become an important principle of Caltrans and Gov. George Deukmejian’s Administration.

Universal Studios Project

In one such project, MCA Inc., parent company of Universal Studios, received approval in January from Caltrans to spend $3 million to build on- and off-ramps connecting the Hollywood Freeway and Universal Studios. That project is in the planning stages, the Caltrans official said, and is not likely to be built for about two years.

In 1983, MCA built an overpass above the Hollywood Freeway, linking Universal City to Cahuenga Boulevard West, but that project did not involve the freeway itself.

The Valencia project, initiated by Newhall Land & Farming executives more than five years ago, is designed to provide better access to the 1,500-acre Valencia Industrial Park and relieve traffic congestion on streets leading to Magic Mountain amusement park.

Until last year, when Newhall Land & Farming built a temporary back road into the industrial park, more than 6,000 employees of the 200 companies there were forced to travel to and from work by way of Magic Mountain Parkway, the main route into the amusement park.

The industrial park, developed in stages by Newhall Land & Farming beginning in 1960, is scheduled for expansion and is expected to employ about 25,000 within 15 years, said James Backer, a company executive.

“We are committed to providing the basic infrastructure that goes along with growth,” he said.

The new ramps, which will be completed in about six months, are meant to relieve traffic congestion for industrial park employees, area residents and others using the interstate and Magic Mountain Parkway, Becker said.

Connie Worden, a Santa Clarita Valley community activist, said the new ramps also will provide easier access to the industrial park for emergency vehicles. Because of the lack of access roads, about 1,500 employees of H. R. Textron, one of the park’s largest tenants, could not be evacuated from the area during a fire a few years ago, Worden said. No one was hurt in the fire, however.

Becker said the second phase of the project, a modification of the interchange at Henry Mayo Drive, will provide better access to the industrial park from the northbound freeway. That project will begin next year, he said.

Request 5 Years Ago

Newhall Land & Farming executives approached state officials more than five years ago with an offer to pay for freeway improvements. Despite support from state Sen. Ed Davis (R-Valencia) and former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., the project was stalled in the state highway bureaucracy until about a year ago.

“With the demand for freeway improvement far surpassing the state funds available, it has become necessary to count on cooperation and cost-sharing between the state and the private sector,” Davis said.

He said construction on the Valencia project “is the first time that a private company has fully funded the cost of much needed highway improvements.”