Thoroughfare a Rough Road to Maintain : Transportation: The state is responsible for taking care of Topanga Canyon Boulevard. But it wants Los Angeles to assume part of the role.

Harvey Melamed has driven Topanga Canyon Boulevard from his home in Woodland Hills to work in Simi Valley for five years and every year, he says, the potholes have sunk deeper and the pavement has run rougher.

The pitted road wore away at his shock absorbers and his tolerance.

Finally, Melamed became so enraged that he called Los Angeles city officials to ask that the road be repaired. He discovered that Topanga Canyon Boulevard is actually a state highway and is the responsibility of the California Department of Transportation.

He then called Caltrans and was told that for two years, the state has been trying to give up responsibility for Topanga Canyon Boulevard and eight other state highways in Los Angeles County to concentrate its resources on freeways. Those highways, which include such well-known thoroughfares as Santa Monica and Hawthorne boulevards, have been a lower priority for the state in recent years.

The city, however, has been reluctant to accept responsibility for Topanga Canyon Boulevard, saying it doesn’t have the resources to repair or maintain it.

And so Topanga Canyon Boulevard, Melamed found out, has become somewhat of an unwanted stepchild.

“This is absurd because the road is badly deteriorating and no one is working on it,” said Melamed, vice president of an auto parts company. “How long can this go on? Until the road is impassable?”

A week ago, state and city street engineers met to discuss transferring to the city responsibility for the eight-mile stretch of the street between the Simi Valley and Ventura freeways. The state wants to retain control of the stretch between the Ventura Freeway and Pacific Coast Highway.

The main topic of discussion was how much maintenance work--such as repaving and re-striping--the state should complete before the city accepts the road.

“There was quite a difference of opinion about what was needed to accept the relinquishment or whether it was a good idea at all,” said Randall Disko, a city civil engineer who attended the meeting. “The extent of repairs is always a central issue” in such negotiations, he said.

No agreement was reached, and city engineers are now asking various city agencies to suggest what conditions should be imposed on the state before the road is accepted.

Caltrans officials say Topanga Canyon Boulevard should be the city’s responsibility because it functions as a city street, primarily serving local traffic.

When the boulevard became a state highway in 1933, the road traversed relatively undeveloped farmland. But that has changed.

“Over the years, with all the development, this street became like a regular city street,” said Milton Watanabe, a senior transportation engineer for the state. “Caltrans feels it is just like a city street and it’s best that the city take it over.”

Caltrans is in the process of giving up another state highway--Foothill Boulevard, which runs between the city of San Fernando and the San Gabriel Valley. Road crews have started repaving a 3.5-mile section of the road in preparation for the transfer, and the work should be completed in September.

That work was required by state statute because Foothill has been superseded by the Foothill Freeway. But the statute does not apply to Topanga Canyon because no freeway has replaced it.

The other routes that Caltrans would like to give up are Santa Monica Boulevard (California 2), Hawthorne Boulevard (California 107), Rosemead Boulevard (California 19), Western Avenue (California 213), Azusa Avenue (California 39), Highland Avenue (California 170) and Venice Boulevard (California 187).

No other meetings have been scheduled between the state and city.

As state and city officials debate the circumstances under which the city will assume responsibility for Topanga Canyon Boulevard, Melamed and others say maintenance of the road has been neglected.

“If you don’t have a car that is built like a tank, it is going to fall apart after a while on this road,” he said.

Bill Brady, past president of the Canoga Park Chamber of Commerce, said the group wrote letters to the state and the city last year requesting that the city take responsibility for the road because of the state’s neglect.

“You call Caltrans to get a repair and it takes six months,” he said. “With the city, they will be out in six hours.”

He said the potholes on the road, which in some spots are three inches deep, are “dangerous to drive over” and are getting worse.

The deterioration of Topanga Canyon Boulevard is most evident at its intersection with Ventura Boulevard because the city recently repaved that part of Ventura; Caltrans has not resurfaced that stretch of Topanga Canyon in nearly 20 years.

Although Caltrans officials defend their record of maintaining the state’s highways, they acknowledge that Topanga Canyon badly needs repaving.

Dave Servaes, Caltrans’ manager for road maintenance in Ventura County and the San Fernando Valley, said that in the past five years, he has made four requests to have the road repaved. He said he has had no response from his superiors.

Caltrans spokesman Russ Snyder said state road crews patched cracks on Topanga Canyon through the Valley in 1988. But he said the last major resurfacing job was in 1975, on a one-mile section between Gresham and Strathern streets. A two-mile section between Devonshire and Gresham streets was repaved in 1973.

In contrast, the city repaved a three-mile section of De Soto Avenue between Saticoy and Devonshire streets in 1989. De Soto and Topanga Canyon Boulevard carry roughly the same number of vehicles per day--between 29,000 and 43,000, depending on the location.

Topanga Canyon Boulevard

* The length of the segment the state wants to turn over to the city: eight miles

* Where: between the Simi Valley Freeway on the north and the Ventura Freeway on the south

* Daily vehicle trips: At the Simi Valley Freeway: 43,000; at Ventura Boulevard: 29,500

* Other city streets, designated as state highways, over which Caltrans wants to give up control: Santa Monica Boulevard (California 2), Hawthorne Boulevard (California 107), Rosemead Boulevard (California 19), Western Avenue (California 213), Azusa Avenue (California 39), Highland Avenue (California 170), Venice Boulevard (California 187)

* Last time a segment of Topanga Canyon Boulevard had major repaving: 1975

A large portion of De Soto Avenue, which is nearby and has similar traffic, was repaved by the city in 1989; the last time a portion of Tampa Avenue was repaved was 1991.

* Cost of needed repairs before city takes over the street: being calculated