2 Miles of Ventura Blvd. to Be Repaved : Traffic: The 6-week project, beginning Feb. 26, will stretch from Balboa to Sepulveda boulevards.

A major overhaul of a two-mile stretch of Ventura Boulevard in Encino will limit daytime traffic to half the roadway’s width for six weeks starting Feb. 26, city officials said Tuesday.

The $500,000 project between Balboa and Sepulveda boulevards is necessary because years of heavy traffic and an unstable road base have resulted in dips, bumps, cracks and other potentially hazardous irregularities, said Curt Bianchi, head of the city Street Maintenance Division.

The three-phase project is scheduled to be completed by early May, officials said. Traffic officers will be stationed at major intersections to help ease congestion during the construction, and other measures such as adjusting traffic signals may be implemented, officials said.

“Some delays and inconvenience are inevitable in a project of this scope,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude, whose district includes Encino. “There is never really a right time to reconstruct and repave a major street, so the city is working hard to make this project go as quickly and as well as it can.”

Braude said the improvements, the first along that part of Ventura Boulevard in about 20 years, should last for 18 to 22 years.

During the first phase, traffic will be channeled into two lanes in each direction between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m., with one lane being reversed during the morning rush-hour period so that three lanes will be alloted to eastbound traffic, officials said. The first phase will consist of rebuilding portions of the roadway’s base, either by replacing the 6- to 8-inch-thick asphalt layer that supports the pavement or by shoring up soil underneath the base, Bianchi said.

The second phase, when workers will grind down bumps and other irregularities in the road’s surface, will take place in three one-week segments beginning April 16. The first segment will be between Sepulveda and Gloria Avenue, and work on the second segment--between Gloria and Hayvenhurst Avenue--will start April 23, officials said. The last segment will be between Hayvenhurst and Balboa, starting Monday, April 30.

The grinding operation will be conducted weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Repaving and restriping--the third phase--will follow immediately after the grinding on three consecutive Sundays between 3 a.m. and noon, officials said.