Freeway and Rail Line

With regard to a Times article of Feb. 7 about an advisory vote by Valley residents for a choice of a continuation of the Metro Rail line, let’s get a few facts straight.

The Ventura Freeway opened in 1960. It does not have sound walls, even though before 1987 it was considered the most heavily traveled freeway in the world.

Drive it now, and it feels like you have a flat tire. Cement loses some of its strength over years, especially when tons of weight are placed upon it second by second. Trying to put up a monorail or heavy rail line along the Ventura Freeway is just inviting another Bay Bridge.

I moved into my home in 1966, when freeway noise was minimal--but then so was Burbank Airport noise, which goes right over my home.

An official of Caltrans promised me, prior to my moving into my home, that a sound wall would be put up along the Ventura Freeway by the end of 1968. Unfortunately, that person now is retired and no longer a state employee.

We handful of naysayers--the Coalition of Freeway Homeowners and those members of churches and synagogues along Chandler Boulevard--are not against mass rapid transit, but we know what we were promised, and we know the bureaucracy is not to be trusted.

Supervisor Deane Dana wants an advisory vote. Is he willing to pay for it? Who is doing this advising? Not one person on the City Council’s Citizen Advisory Committee lives along any of the proposed routes. How come? Don’t they want to put up with the dirt, dust, noise and nighttime construction?

The only thing that is acceptable is a subway. Or let’s get some bus service first here in the Valley.

There is only one Metro Rail route for the Valley--a 50- to 75-foot-deep subway along Ventura Boulevard, where all the offices could be served.

STUART M. SIMEN

North Hollywood