L.A. Chided Over Unspent Traffic Signal Funds : Katz Says City’s Delays May Add $2 Million to Computerized System’s Cost

Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) scolded Los Angeles city transportation officials Wednesday for sitting on more than $17 million he helped secure more than a year ago for an automated traffic signal system in the southern San Fernando Valley.

The system, called ATSAC for Automated Traffic Surveillance and Control, uses a computer to monitor traffic progress through major intersections and automatically changes signals as needed in a wide swath stretching along Ventura and Victory boulevards. Katz, chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee, called it the “smart intersection” project.

When the money was allocated in June, 1988, city transportation officials predicted that it could be completed within a year. Plans call for a gradual phase-in over the next two years, city transportation manager S. Edwin Rowe said Wednesday.

Higher Cost

Katz told council members who serve on the city Transportation Committee that the delays could cause the project to cost up to $2 million more. In the meantime, he said, Valley traffic congestion worsens.

“So, we’re sitting here wondering how much of the traffic situation could’ve been avoided, how many headaches could’ve been avoided,” Katz said.

Under questioning by Councilman Nate Holden, committee chairman, Rowe said the 382-intersection system had been started with a strip of intersections along and near Ventura Boulevard, between Reseda and Lankershim boulevards. But later he conceded that those intersections had been paid for and constructed by the state Department of Transportation in anticipation of traffic congestion on side streets during the Ventura Freeway widening.

“Why can’t we do it faster? There’s no simple answer to that,” Rowe said, outlining design delays and the labyrinthine process of using outside contractors.

Study Promised

Rowe promised the committee that he would study ways of speeding up the process. But after the meeting, Katz said the department was “still stuck in bureaucratic mud.”

“It’s going to take a lot of pressure from the committee and from me to get this done,” he said.

The money came from various sources: $1.7 million from the state Department of Transportation, $3 million from the city’s 1988-89 budget and $12.5 million from the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission.

Katz said he was particularly concerned that the county commission would vote to reallocate its money if it were not spent soon.

During his testimony before the board, Rowe explained that several similar projects being funded by developers and other independent sources--including one in Hollywood--are proceeding faster than the Valley project.

“The San Fernando Valley is being treated as a second-class citizen and that’s not fair,” Katz said.