State Faults Overrun, Then OKs Ventura Freeway Work

After protesting a doubling of the projected cost, state transportation officials on Thursday approved a $41.3-million widening of the traffic-clogged Ventura Freeway from Universal City to Woodland Hills.

Work could begin as early as October, officials with the state Department of Transportation said, although there is a lingering threat of a lawsuit that could delay the project.

The Coalition for Clean Air, which in May filed a legally required notice of intent to sue, wants the project redesigned to include an eastbound diamond lane restricted to vehicles with more than one occupant.

The Santa Monica-based organization’s directors, who contend that a restricted lane will reduce smog by getting motorists to share rides, are to vote next week on whether to sue.

Meeting in this Northern California city Thursday, the California Transportation Commission balked briefly, but then gave its assent to the long-delayed project.

Cost Increase Lamented

Several commissioners, who are appointed by the governor and control all state transportation spending, expressed dismay that the widening cost had increased more than $20 million in two years.

“With cost overruns of this amount, we as a commission could be subjected to criticism,” commission Chairman Joseph Duffel complained.

Caltrans planner Allan Hendrix told commissioners that about $5 million of the increase resulted from traffic-control measures, including new signals on Ventura Boulevard, aimed at keeping the freeway’s “immense volume of traffic moving” during the 22-month construction period.

Another $5 million stems from the redesign triggered in 1987 by Caltrans’ decision to drop the controversial diamond lane, Hendrix said; the remainder is caused by “our engineers finding unusual foundation conditions for retaining walls and the like.”

The Ventura Freeway, which handles 280,000 vehicles daily, is a patchwork of eight- and 10-lane-wide sections.

15-Mile Stretch

It is to be widened to a uniform 10 lanes from Topanga Canyon Boulevard to Universal City, a 15-mile stretch.

The new lanes will also be extended south on the Hollywood Freeway to Lankershim Boulevard, south of which the freeway is already 10 lanes wide.

Traffic planners predict that the widening will ease congestion on the Ventura Freeway, which is clogged eight to 10 hours a day, for no more than a year, after which congestion will quickly return to pre-widening levels.

Planners attribute the projected increase in freeway congestion to population growth west of the San Fernando Valley and to a sharp increase in the number of people employed in the West Valley.

The new lanes are to be created by narrowing the existing 12-foot-wide lanes by a foot each and by using the median.

To lessen the impact on traffic, most work will be done at night, officials said.