Officials Shift Monorail Plan to Freeway Median : Transportation: A commission approves the switch after Caltrans expresses safety concerns over columns alongside ramps.

Los Angeles County transportation officials Wednesday unveiled a new version of a proposed monorail along the Ventura Freeway, scrapping a plan to study a line along the freeway’s southern edge in favor of a route down the center median.

The county Transportation Commission’s vote to approve the switch came after Caltrans officials had warned that the columns supporting the elevated system might be hit by vehicles and damaged if placed as planned in the narrow triangular spaces between the freeway and its on- and off-ramps.

The turnabout was the latest chapter in a long struggle over what type of east-west rail line--if any--might be built in the San Fernando Valley, in addition to the Metro Rail line planned to run between downtown and North Hollywood.

County officials in March favored a 5.6-mile westward subway extension to the San Diego Freeway along the Southern Pacific’s Burbank branch right of way.

But they also agreed to study a Ventura Freeway monorail system such as the one overwhelmingly favored by Valley voters in a June referendum.

“If the project can be kept relatively simple, and the linkages between the proposed monorail and other systems worked out, the potential exists that the monorail alternative could be competitive with the subway alternatives,” commission Executive Director Neil Peterson said.

County officials originally had been looking toward a monorail line on the southern edge of the freeway, with the route flaring outward from the freeway to avoid crossing over on- and off-ramps.

But they later agreed to study a route with its guideway and stations over the ramp areas.

The latest switch could be bad news for the hundreds of thousands of commuters who drive the freeway, since the monorail system might use some of the center median areas where Caltrans is now widening the freeway to provide additional capacity.

“I don’t think we could take a lane away,” said Lew Bedolla, a Caltrans deputy district director in Los Angeles.

Although the ultimate resolution would be part of the study, Bedolla said Caltrans could consider narrowing the freeway lanes or widening its outside edges as alternatives.

As envisioned by Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who proposed the monorail concept more than two years ago, the line would run 16.5 miles along the freeway from Universal City to Canoga Park.

County officials have estimated that it could cost $1.6 billion.