6-Mile Section : County OKs Widening of Simi Freeway

A $40-million widening of the Simi Valley Freeway from Balboa Boulevard to the Ventura County line was approved Wednesday by Los Angeles County Transportation Commission.

If, as expected, the long-awaited project is approved by the California Transportation Commission, the congested 6-mile section of six-lane freeway will be widened to eight lanes within the next five years.

From Balboa to the Golden State Freeway, the Simi Valley Freeway is 10 lanes, and there are no plans to widen that stretch.

For several years, the county Transportation Commission, which must approve all local rail and highway projects, has come close to including the Simi Valley Freeway widening in the state’s five-year highway building plan, which is updated annually.

Since its completion in 1982, the Simi Valley Freeway has grown increasingly congested, said Ginger Gherardi, the commission’s highway program manager.

Other Needs

But the widening project has been squeezed out each time by other, more pressing needs. The project still must be approved by the state commission in August, but that agency almost always permits counties to spend their share of state highway building money as they see fit.

“Today’s action is the last serious hurdle,” Gherardi said Wednesday.

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

Also approved Wednesday by voice vote of the 11-member county Transportation Commission was construction of a sound wall on the north side of the Ventura Freeway between Winnetka and De Soto avenues.

That project also will be completed within five years, Gherardi said.