State Is Asked to Pay for 2 Area Freeway Projects

A group of San Fernando Valley politicians and civic leaders made final appeals Thursday to the California Transportation Commission for approval of about $32 million for two Valley-area highway projects.

The projects are a long-sought Ventura Freeway interchange at Valley Circle Boulevard and Mulholland Drive and a climbing lane for trucks on the westbound Simi Valley Freeway at the Los Angeles-Ventura County border.

The commission, which controls all highway spending in the state, will decide June 25 which projects will receive the $285 million allocated for Southern California. Funding requests from the 13-county area total more than $400 million, according to Robert S. Nielsen, executive director of the commission.

Thursday’s hearing in Van Nuys was marked by the last-ditch effort of politicians and local transportation officials to pitch their projects to the commission. The two Valley projects were included in a package of highway improvements recommended to state officials by the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission.

In pushing for the Valley Circle interchange, Los Angeles Councilwoman Joy Picus said the project is needed to cut rush-hour traffic backups on Valley Circle Boulevard and Mulholland Drive. She said she has pushed for the project since 1979.

The interchange would replace a narrow two-lane freeway overpass and one-lane on- and off-ramps with a wider bridge and ramps.

The commission accepted the project for financing in 1983 but there was never a formal appropriation because of continuing problems in designing the interchange, according to Allan H. Hendrix, the California Department of Transportation’s chief of highway development in Los Angeles. Caltrans is studying four designs that would cost about $30 million, he said.

‘Not Devoting Resources’

In testimony before the commission, Roger Stanard, chairman of the Ventura Freeway Improvement Coalition, a group of business and community leaders, accused Caltrans of “not devoting enough resources” to complete design plans for the project.

The design should be chosen and the project funded this year, he said, so that construction can coincide with the Ventura Freeway widening project, which is expected to get under way in January.

The Simi Valley Freeway project would add a lane over the two miles between Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Rocky Peak Road, where there is a steep uphill grade in the westbound lanes.

Money from the City of Simi Valley, nearby developers and Los Angeles County has been set aside to pay for half of the $3.2-million project, which straddles the Los Angeles-Ventura County line. State funds are being sought to pay for the other half.

Reduce Hazards

Simi Valley Councilwoman Vicki Howard told the commission that the lane would reduce traffic congestion and driving hazards caused by slow-moving trucks.

Nielsen said projects that are partly financed by local governments, such as the Simi Freeway truck lane, are given high priority to receive state funds.

Construction on projects that are selected for funding in June probably will begin in 1991 because of the state’s five-year planning schedule, Nielsen said.

The Caltrans meeting at the Van Nuys state office building continues today with discussion of plans to begin the Valley leg of Metro Rail.