Tricky Detours Ahead for Some Freeway Commuters

Thousands of commuters will be funneled past the front door of the Calabasas development company where Diane Foster works. But her customers will need maps to figure out the complicated, roundabout route they will have to take to reach her parking lot.

The confusion will come with a network of detours to be set up next year to steer motorists around an $18-million Ventura Freeway repair and widening project at the western edge of the San Fernando Valley, highway planners said Thursday.

Five major on- and off-ramps in Woodland Hills and Calabasas will be closed for up to eight months during the project, state Department of Transportation engineers warned business leaders from the two communities.

The ramp closings will force thousands of motorists each day onto crowded Calabasas Road and Ventura Boulevard and down an unusual milelong bypass road that will be built along the edge of the freeway, Caltrans officials said.

The bypass will be earmarked for travelers going east from Thousand Oaks and Agoura to Warner Center, said Larry Hathaway, Caltrans’ traffic coordinator for the freeway project.

Those motorists will exit at Parkway Calabasas and be channeled over the freeway bridge, he said. From there, commuters will be ushered down an existing westbound freeway off-ramp and onto the bypass, which will be built along the freeway’s northern edge.

Hathaway said a safety barrier will protect commuters using the bypass from oncoming westbound freeway traffic. The bypass will connect with Valley Circle Boulevard, Leonora Drive and Ventura Boulevard, he said.

Targeted for closure will be the westbound on-ramp at Topanga Canyon Boulevard, westbound off-ramps at Valley Circle Boulevard and Parkway Calabasas and eastbound off-ramps at Mulholland Drive and Fallbrook Avenue.

14-Month Notice

Caltrans officials said the ramp closings and detours will begin around August, 1988. They said the 14-month notice is designed to give businesses time to stagger work shifts or set up car pools for employees.

About 130 companies sent representatives to three Caltrans briefings Thursday. Many predicted a rough road ahead for their firms.

“It looks like it’s going to cause an interesting bottleneck for a lot of us,” said Foster, corporate secretary for Griffin Homes. Her development company’s headquarters is a few feet from the planned bypass lane, which will not be usable by Calabasas-bound motorists.

“We’re definitely going to have to plan ahead and send memos and maps to people who do business with us,” said Judy Hamilton, vice president of administration for Mitchell Co. Her sales and marketing firm is also near the bypass.

Tom Maher, area manager for Rolm Systems, said his telecommunications company is likely to close its Calabasas Road warehouse because of next year’s expected traffic jams.

“We can’t stagger our work schedule or anything because we’re a service business,” Maher said. “We’ll have an extensive employee awareness plan for our 150 people.”

Woodview-Calabasas Psychiatric Hospital will have a maintenance man with a red flag guiding its 170 employes in and out of its driveway, said Bob Trostler, hospital administrator.

Trostler said a temporary freeway off-ramp to be built near the front of his hospital for use as the main eastbound Calabasas exit will send thousands of vehicles down what is now a dead-end street.

“The public’s going to have to be real courteous for this to succeed,” Trostler said.

Warner Center employers said the freeway project will cause them to take drastic measures, too.

“When I saw their maps today, I said, ‘now’s the time to sound the alarm to our employees,’ ” said Ron Palmer, employee communications chief for the 3,750-worker Litton Guidance and Control Systems plant on Canoga Avenue.

“We stagger our starting time now at 7, 7:30 and 8 in the morning. We may have to spread it out more.”

Rocketdyne’s 6,000 workers will be surveyed to determine if a concentrated company-sponsored ride-sharing program will work, said Ed Klodt, employee communications director.

Barbara Reinike, corporate community affairs manager at Lockheed Corp. headquarters in Calabasas Park, said such measures as outlying van pool parking lots are something her company may look at for its 280 employees.

“We’re very pleased with Caltrans’ efforts,” Reinike said. “They’re trying to do something for motorists other than just put a few cones out in the street.”