Lane Closings to Begin Tuesday on Ventura Freeway

Nighttime lane closings will begin Tuesday on the Ventura Freeway in Tarzana and Woodland Hills, the state Department of Transportation announced Friday.

The closings, which will continue on and off for 15 months, are needed to speed widening of the freeway from White Oak Avenue to Valley Circle Boulevard, Caltrans officials said.

At first, at least one westbound lane will be closed each night from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., said Jerry Baxter, Caltrans’ interim director for Southern California.

Lane Additions

Major improvements included in the $18.3-million project are the addition of a fifth westbound lane between White Oak Avenue and Topanga Canyon Boulevard and the addition of a fourth lane each way between Topanga Canyon and Valley Circle boulevards, a 2-mile stretch known as the Woodland Hills bottleneck.

The freeway already is four lanes each way from Valley Circle to the Conejo Grade in Thousand Oaks.

Also included in the project is the replacement of several segments of broken pavement, notably on bumpy Chalk Hill immediately west of Winnetka Avenue.

The contractor, Tutor-Saliba Corp., also will replace 3,200 feet of pavement at the Valley Circle interchange.

At the height of construction, Caltrans plans to designate bypass routes in hopes of inducing motorists bound for nearby destinations to stay off the freeway within the Woodland Hills bottleneck.

Baxter said the work scheduled to begin Tuesday includes trenching for a drainage system along the westbound freeway’s outside shoulder from Wilbur to Woodlake avenues.

In another development Friday, the South Coast Air Quality Management District board postponed for a month a decision on whether to go to court to force Caltrans to restrict a proposed eastbound fifth lane to vehicles with at least two occupants.

‘Diamond Lane’ Designation

Air quality board members, who have launched a region-wide campaign to promote ride-sharing, in February gave Caltrans a month to reverse itself and designate the eastbound lane between Topanga Canyon Boulevard and the Hollywood Freeway a “diamond lane.”

But, at the suggestion of board member Larry Berg, the board Friday gave Caltrans more time to reconsider its decision.

Caltrans first favored an eastbound diamond lane, but dropped the idea 13 months ago in response to widespread opposition, including 12,000 letters of protest, mostly from West San Fernando Valley residents.

If the diamond lane controversy can be resolved, Caltrans plans to begin the Topanga-to-Universal City widening early next year.

The $22-million project is expected to last 16 months.

However, Caltrans says that, if the widening project must be redesigned to include a diamond lane, it will be delayed at least a year and the cost will be increased by about $30 million.