Long-Awaited Freeway Connector Project Starts : Transportation: The route will bridge the gap between the Moorpark and Simi Valley freeways and reduce Los Angeles Avenue congestion.

Politicians representing city, county, state and federal government showed up in force Friday to take credit for the long-awaited groundbreaking for the $33-million connector between the Moorpark and Simi Valley freeways.

State Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara) looked around at the gaggle of fellow politicos--from Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) to Moorpark Mayor Paul W. Lawrason--and commented, “I am reminded of a quote by John F. Kennedy: ‘Victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan.’ ”

All reminded the nearly 100 people gathered in Moorpark that the project was a long time in coming but completion is within reach. It has been 11 years since citizens and politicians began to push the state for funds to bridge the 2.2-mile gap between the freeways. The connection is scheduled for completion in two years.

Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton said the political route to funding the connector was fraught with frustration.

“It came and went and got delayed,” Stratton said. “There were hassles over the route. It took the perils of Pauline to get here. But we made it.”

During the ceremony, filled with various reminiscences about the project’s birth, Thousand Oaks Mayor Frank Schillo was rescued from a flapping American flag that repeatedly smacked him in the face in the gusting wind--then fell on him. Kris Kuzmich, representing Assemblyman Jack O’Connell (D-Carpinteria), lifted the errant flag off Schillo’s head and shoulders.

Instead of using shovels for the groundbreaking, 11 government officials watched as a bulldozer cut the first swath through a hillside at the end of the Moorpark Freeway.

The project, expected to be completed in the spring of 1993, will be a long bridge that rises above the city of Moorpark from the Simi Valley Freeway to the Moorpark Freeway. About 23,000 vehicles from both freeways now use Los Angeles Avenue each day, clogging traffic all day in downtown Moorpark.

Without the connector, the traffic volume on Los Angeles Avenue would increase to 72,000 vehicles per day by 2010, said Jerry B. Baxter of the California Department of Transportation.

The project, which will employ 100 workers, includes:

* The moving of about 1.8 million cubic yards of dirt and the use of 60,000 cubic yards of concrete.

* Seven bridges, rising to a maximum height of almost 100 feet. They will carry traffic across the Southern Pacific railroad tracks, the Arroyo Simi and Moorpark’s surface streets.

* Interchanges at Princeton Avenue, New Los Angeles Avenue and Collins Drive.

* Creation of 17 acres of new wetlands to replace six acres along the Arroyo Simi. The wetlands are a growth of brush and trees along the arroyo, fed from Simi Valley treated sewer water flowing downstream.

Despite praise from the speakers about the saving of the wetlands, in 1987 Moorpark residents who live near Moorpark College complained bitterly that the freeway was being routed closer to their houses to save wetlands created by Simi Valley’s sewer system.

In order to address their concerns, Caltrans has agreed to build a landscape buffer to cut the freeway noise at the Varsity Park housing tract.