Caltrans to Begin Redesign Project at Calabasas Interchange Next Year

After more than 20 years of study and four years of wrangling with Calabasas residents, Caltrans plans to break ground next July on a new bridge and interchange at the Ventura Freeway and Valley Circle Boulevard.

The $13.5-million project, outlined at a community meeting Wednesday night, will redesign the interchange to make it easier to get on and off the freeway and will take about 2 1/2 years to complete, said Caltrans transportation engineer Sam Esquenazi.

It is a scaled-back version of a 1988 plan and represents a victory for local residents who sued to stop the earlier proposal, which called for a second bridge over the freeway connecting four-lane Ventura Boulevard to two-lane Calabasas Road in the heart of Old Town Calabasas.

Although residents wanted a solution to what one called “horrendous” traffic bottlenecks on the 1950s-era interchange, they objected to the original plan because they said it would destroy the community’s Old West flavor and threaten the historic Leonis Adobe.

The suit was settled in July, 1990, and Caltrans redesigned the interchange. Plans now call for a new bridge connecting Valley Circle to Mulholland Drive and redesigning of on-ramps and off-ramps on both sides of the freeway.

“As far as the community is concerned, I think they are very happy with the project,” Esquenazi said.

Indeed, at Wednesday’s community meeting, about 25 people politely questioned Caltrans officials about traffic delays caused by construction--a change from public meetings over the last four years at which as many as 250 residents blasted plans for the interchange.

“Everyone is satisfied now,” said attorney Jack Rubens, who filed the federal and state lawsuits that led Caltrans to reconsider the interchange’s design.

Although construction of the interchange will require moving several oak trees near the 148-year-old Leonis Adobe, Caltrans planners have taken care to design the ramps near the museum so they will be as unobtrusive as possible.

“First, we were at sword points, but now we seem to be working together,” said Phyllis Jones, director and curator of the Leonis Adobe museum.

While Caltrans is building the Valley Circle project, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works will begin work on a new bridge and interchange at Parkway Calabasas, about one mile west of Valley Circle.

That project, costing a total of $16 million, will begin next February and is expected to last about two years.

Plans for the project, which will be funded by a special bridge and thoroughfare district supported by local developers, call for the Parkway Calabasas bridge to be widened and new ramps to be installed on both sides of the freeway.