Caltrans Trying to Speed Up Building of Freeway Car-Pool Lanes : Transit: Three sections of road in the Valley would get a total of 24 miles. Officials hope that construction can start next year.

State transportation officials are working to accelerate plans to build nearly 24 miles of car-pool lanes on three sections of freeway in the San Fernando Valley, officials said Monday.

The California Department of Transportation plans to move up by about three years a proposal to widen sections of the San Diego, Hollywood and Ventura freeways to add the car-pool lanes at a combined cost of about $56 million, officials said.

The lanes would be added to the freeways--not subtracted from the present lanes--but would be built using space on the shoulder and in the median without expanding the freeway strip into adjoining land, Caltrans officials said.

The car-pool lanes, also known as high-occupancy vehicle or HOV lanes, were originally scheduled for construction beginning in 1996. But Caltrans officials in Los Angeles said they have urged transportation officials in Sacramento to begin construction in 1993 to help alleviate traffic congestion and spur the economy by adding jobs in the areas.

Although the California Transportation Commission agreed in concept about three months ago to accelerate the work, the commission--which oversees the Caltrans budget--has yet to formally approve of the plan because Caltrans officials have not come up with a way to pay for it, said Chuck O’Connell, Caltrans’ deputy district director.

But O’Connell said Caltrans will move ahead with design of the projects while looking for ways to fund them. One option, he said, would be to use money the state has saved by securing lower-than-expected bids from construction firms on other projects.

O’Connell said Caltrans officials have not publicized the projects because of the questions about funding. But he said transportation officials believe that the lanes, in addition to new mass-transit projects, will help reduce traffic congestion significantly.

The new lanes would eventually become part of a system of HOV lanes that would, within 30 years, include nearly all of the 500 miles of freeway in Los Angeles County, Caltrans officials said.

“The main thing is to create a network of HOV lanes to help the people move from one place to another,” said Raja Mitwasi, head of Caltrans’ HOV task force in Los Angeles. “It will be like a little freeway system within the freeway system.”

The HOV lanes would be added in both directions on the following freeway segments:

* 8.5 miles of the San Diego Freeway between the Ventura and Golden State freeways.

* 6.1 miles of the Hollywood Freeway between the Ventura and Golden State freeways.

* 9.3 miles of the Ventura Freeway between the Hollywood and Glendale freeways.

State transportation officials in Los Angeles, and local politicians such as Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, recently urged the state to accelerate the HOV lane work on the Valley freeway segments because those freeways have extra-wide medians and the lanes would not require land purchases, freeway closures or major construction.

Barring any major hitches, Mitwasi said all three segments could be completed by 1995.

Wally Rothway, Caltrans’ chief of project studies for Los Angeles and Ventura counties, said the HOV lanes would be constructed on the inside shoulder of the freeways. To convert the shoulder areas to HOV lanes, he said, workers would simply repave and restripe the freeway.

In some areas, however, concrete barriers must be installed to replace chain-link fences that run along the center divider, he said.

The plan is intended to give motorists using car pools the ability to drive anywhere in the county on HOV lanes, Caltrans officials said.

If these and other projects are built on schedule, Mitwasi said 80% of the county’s HOV lane system would be completed or in the process of being completed by 2000.

He estimated that about 1,000 vehicles would use each segment of the new HOV lane on a daily basis--less than 1% of the traffic on any of the freeways.

The San Diego Freeway between the Hollywood and Golden State freeways carries a daily average of 199,000 vehicles in both directions. The Hollywood Freeway between the Ventura and Golden State freeways carries a daily average of 150,000 vehicles. And the Ventura Freeway between the Hollywood and Glendale freeways carries 201,000 vehicles a day.

In a related item, the state Transportation Commission has approved $12.1 million to widen a 2.2-mile stretch of the Golden State Freeway near Pacoima.

The freeway will be widened from five to six lanes from the Hollywood Freeway to just north of Van Nuys Boulevard to reduce commuter traffic congestion, Caltrans officials said.

The widening work is expected to start in mid-September and be completed by August, 1993.

At Van Nuys Boulevard, the freeway carries an average of 227,000 vehicles per day, Caltrans officials said.