Flooding Slows Commute on Key Freeway

Rain throughout the day Monday caused flooding on the Ventura Freeway, slowing traffic through the San Fernando Valley, but did not bring on the traffic nightmare caused by heavier rains last month.

State Department of Transportation officials said standing water closed one eastbound lane of the freeway in Reseda and also a stretch of freeway in the Burbank-Glendale area during the morning rush hour.

The flooding in the Reseda area, where the freeway crosses over Burbank Boulevard, occurred because a drainage system that is part of the present widening of the freeway has not been completed, project engineer Jim McAllister said.

“We just haven’t finished off the drainage,” McAllister said. “In order to put in a fifth lane, we have to rebuild the drainage. We have pipes in but we don’t have any catch basins in. We have flooding in this area.

“When we finish this freeway, we won’t have any of these problems.”

But McAllister said steps taken by Caltrans after torrential rains three weeks ago caused major flooding on the freeway in the West Valley appeared to help Monday. He said holes drilled in median walls allowed Monday’s rain to drain more quickly near Haskell Avenue in Encino, an area where there was heavy flooding during the earlier storm.

“Things are holding up pretty well there,” McAllister said.

Morning commuters, however, had to contend with up to three inches of standing water on the freeway just east of Forest Lawn Drive in Glendale, which created a traffic jam stretching westward through Burbank, the California Highway Patrol reported. The water buildup caused one of the eastbound lanes to be closed for about an hour.

CHP and Caltrans officials said that stretch of freeway rarely has flood problems, adding that they suspect that drainage systems were clogged with debris washed into them by the heavy rains three weeks ago.

“We have never had a problem out there before,” CHP Officer Ed Jones said.

Elsewhere in the Valley, freeways remained open.

Assistant Los Angeles Fire Chief Richard Olsen said there were no reports of unusual flooding or damage in the area, including the Sepulveda Basin, which flooded so rapidly last month that motorists were stranded in submerged cars.

“I am not aware of any major problems,” said Olsen, who is in charge of Fire Department operations in the Valley. “We are in pretty good shape.”

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