Widening Urged for Simi Freeway

Citing increased congestion caused by motorists seeking to avoid construction on the Ventura Freeway, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday asked the state to speed up plans for widening the Simi Valley Freeway in the San Fernando Valley.

Since its completion in 1982, the Simi Valley Freeway has grown increasingly congested, state Department of Transportation officials say.

In recent years, widening the three-lane section from Balboa Boulevard to the Ventura County line has been proposed repeatedly, but the project has been squeezed out by other, more pressing needs.

5 Lanes East of Balboa

From Balboa to the Golden State Freeway, the Simi Valley Freeway is five lanes each way and there are no plans to widen that stretch.

At the request of Supervisor Mike Antonovich, whose district includes most of the Valley, supervisors urged Caltrans to begin traffic and design studies required for the project west of Balboa.

“Because the problem is getting worse, we’re asking them to take a close look at the freeway now,” said Rosa Kortizija, an Antonovich aide.

A spokesman for the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, which must approve all highway projects in the county, said that in recent years the widening of the Simi Valley Freeway west of Balboa has come “very, very close” to being included in the county’s highway construction plan.

This year, its chances “appear to be fairly good, if only because some of the higher priorities have been take care of,” the spokesman said.

Among those higher priorities is widening the Ventura Freeway from Valley Circle Boulevard to Universal City, a two-stage project that began in February and is scheduled for completion in 1991.

While a decision on this year’s construction program is still several months away, a commission official said that two projects now getting the most attention are the Simi Valley Freeway widening and the construction of a “diamond lane,” restricted to car pools and buses, on the San Diego Freeway from the Marina Freeway to the Orange County line.

5-Year Delay

Once a project is selected for the construction program, however, it is at least five years before construction begins.

Highway planners expect congestion on the Simi Valley Freeway in the San Fernando Valley to worsen significantly in 1990 or 1991, when a 2-mile connector near Moorpark joins the western end of the Simi Valley Freeway with the Moorpark Freeway.

Motorists now must wind through Moorpark streets to get from one freeway to the other.

Planners believe that the connector will make the Simi Valley Freeway a more attractive alternative for motorists traveling between the north San Fernando Valley and Ventura County.