A New Sunset Blvd. Is in the Works : Safety: Over the next several years, work will start on 10 projects to make a serpentine eight-mile stretch less hazardous.

It is one of the world’s most famous streets. Rising from the azure Pacific, it winds past the broad lawns of Pacific Palisades, along wooded canyons and on eastward toward downtown Los Angeles.

But like the 1950 film classic that borrowed its name, “Sunset Boulevard,” this scenic roadway has a dark side: sharp curves, speeding cars, lanes too narrow and abrupt to allow for mistakes. Time and again, it has been a killer.

Now, however, after more than a decade of community debate and government study, a new Sunset is in the works.

Over the next several years, work will start on 10 projects aimed at improving the safety of the serpentine eight-mile stretch of Sunset Boulevard between Pacific Coast Highway and the San Diego Freeway. In all, the projects carry a price tag approaching $10 million.

“Going way back, the community has been trying to get improvements along Sunset. It started with doing something about the sharp curve at Evans Road,” said Robert Benton, a longtime resident of Pacific Palisades and co-founder of the citizens’ group Safety on Sunset.

“We started organizing. People came together. But you just had to have a lot of clout to get things done,” Benton said.

An early catalyst in the effort was an accident in 1976 at a hairpin turn on Sunset at Evans Road, which area residents had worried and complained about for years. A speeding car spun out of control and plowed head-on into a carful of students from Palisades High School. Three of the students were killed.

“It was horrible,” Benton recalled. “We lost . . . good kids who were just driving along. They hadn’t done anything wrong. It was just that some guy came around the corner too fast and lost control of his car.”

Today, that curve on Sunset is among the locations targeted for improvements. It follows years of planning in which city officials and community groups have sought solutions to make the road safer but not invite more traffic.

“The improvements represent al most 10 years of planning and discussion,” said Glenn Barr, an aide to Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude, whose district includes that portion of Sunset.

“The key point is that the improvements will not mean just widening Sunset to allow more traffic or development. The idea is to make it safer without making it a highway,” Barr said.

That distinction, according to city officials and community leaders, has been significant to area residents.

“Just widening Sunset to take care of the traffic was never seriously considered,” Barr said. “But that was a hard message to get across to the communities because some residents were afraid that improving Sunset meant adding more lanes.”

Instead, city traffic and engineering officials, analyzing traffic flow and terrain, have outlined a series of steps to increase the road’s safety and to decrease congestion. Left-turn lanes will be added. The banking of several sharp turns will be modified. Traffic signals will be added at key intersections. And new lighting will be installed to improve nighttime visibility.

The first of the major projects, the addition of left-turn lanes at Allenford Avenue, has already been completed. And within the next few years, work will be completed on these other major projects on Sunset:

* The hairpin turn at Evans Road will be widened and realigned at a cost of $2.5 million. The project will provide wider lanes, a striped median with left-turn pockets and a more contoured road with retaining walls. Construction is scheduled to begin in 1992.

* The boulevard will be widened and realigned at Will Rogers State Park Road at a cost of $686,300. The intersection, the entry point to the park for thousands of visitors each week, has a high accident rate, according to city traffic officials. A left-turn lane will be built for eastbound drivers, and a traffic signal will be installed. The project is scheduled for completion by 1992.

* The traffic lanes and center median will be widened slightly between Mandeville Canyon and Riviera Ranch roads. The $416,300 project, bordering Paul Revere Junior High School, also will include new traffic signals, along with better street lighting and landscaping to improve visibility for drivers. Work is scheduled for completion by 1992.

* The stretch between Canyon View Drive and Cliffwood Avenue will be widened to accommodate new left-turn lanes in each direction. That stretch, according to city traffic engineers, is often congested by the lack of left-turn lanes and bus stops at Cliffwood. The $396,000 project also calls for new signals and street lights. Construction is expected to be finished by 1994.

* A $1.65-million project will widen and realign the stretch between Las Casas and Las Lomas avenues. Completion is not scheduled until at least 1994.

Although the construction schedule might suggest a lack of urgency on the city’s part, city officials insist that is not the case.

“It has taken a long time because each one of these projects is viewed separately for federal funding and environmental study,” said Cindy Miscikowski, chief deputy to Braude. That process, with public hearings and environmental reports, requires two to three years, she said.

In addition, she noted that several of the improvements, including the project at Evans Road, have faced legal challenges from some area residents concerned about the environmental consequences. And even with those legal battles settled, Sunset’s improvements must wait their turn for city funds.

“None of these are terribly expensive projects, but there is only so much money to go around,” Miscikowski said.

Citywide, for example, there was just $32 million available in 1988-89 for the type of road improvements that are planned for Sunset Boulevard, according to Brian Griffith, the city’s new district engineer for West Los Angeles.

“It comes down to a money problem,” Griffith said. “There are lots of projects and needs citywide.”

Ironically, real progress on the safety improvements comes at a time when the west end of Sunset, with increased patrols by Los Angeles police, has seen a drop in accidents resulting in serious injury or deaths. Statistics provided by police show that there were eight serious accidents along that stretch last year, compared to 19 in 1988, 16 in 1987 and 20 in 1986.

But one tragic accident, Benton noted, can render statistical patterns meaningless.

“The real issue for the community was that we were at the point where we were just waiting for someone else to die, and . . . we couldn’t let that happen,” Benton said.

“A lot of us have been working on this for five years and only one project is finished,” he said. “But we’ve done what we can do. Now it’s the city getting its act together.

“That battle is over. And I’m just crossing my fingers now that no one else gets killed.”

Sunset Boulevard Safety Improvements Within the next few years, work will be completed or near completion on these projects: 1. A $1.65-million street widening and realignment of Sunset between Las Casa and Las Lomas avenues. The project, which also will provide left-turn pockets in each direction, will not be completed until at least 1994. 2. A $686,300 widening and realignment of Sunset at Will Rogers State Park Road. A left-turn lane for eastbound drivers and a traffic signal will be added. The project is slated for completion by 1992. 3. The hairpin turn east of Evans Road to just west of Rustic Canyon Road will be widened and realigned at a cost of $2.5 million. The project will provide wider lanes, a striped median with left-turn pockets and retaining walls at Evans. Construction is scheduled to begin in 1992. 4. Let-turn lanes at Allendford Avenue (already completed). 5. Traffic lanes and the center median along Sunset between Mandeville Canyon and Riviera Ranch roads will be widened. The $416, 300 project, bordering Paul Revere Junior High School, will include new traffic signals and better street lighting to improve visibility. Work is scheduled for completion by 1992. 6. Sunset between Canyon View Drive and Cliffwood Avenue will be widened to accommodate new left-turn lanes in each direction. The $396,000 project also calls for new signals and street lights. Construction is expected to be finished by 1994.