Simi Freeway Ramps Will Finally Open : Transportation: As part of the road construction associated with the Porter Ranch project, connections built in 1982 may be used for the first time.

For more than 10 years, they have been the ramps to nowhere.

Since 1982, the Winnetka Avenue ramps on the Simi Valley Freeway in Chatsworth have remained barricaded and empty while hundreds of thousands of motorists streamed past each day to ramps a mile farther to enter and exit the freeway.

But now, developers of a residential and commercial development north of the freeway say the barricades will come down in the next year or so and the do-nothing ramps will finally realize their purpose--at least for traffic heading north on Winnetka Avenue.

Winnetka Avenue immediately south of the freeway will remain closed due to pressure from residents in an area of exclusive estates who will not allow outsiders on their private streets.

The ramps were built at a cost of $1 million in 1982 during the final construction phase of the freeway. But they were never opened due to a dispute over whether Winnetka Avenue should be extended south of the freeway through the exclusive gated community of Monteria Estates.

Residents of that 26-home community fought to keep private a one-mile stretch of Winnetka Avenue through their neighborhood. With the help of City Councilman Hal Bernson--who represents the northwestern San Fernando Valley--and the consent of a city advisory committee, the road remained closed to the general public, while the ramps simply remained closed.

State and city officials said at the time that they could not predict when--if ever--the four ramps would be opened.

But the future of the ramps was re-examined in 1989 when the Porter Ranch Development Co. proposed a $2-billion, 1,300-acre residential and commercial development north of the Simi Valley Freeway and west of Tampa Avenue. The project, to be built over a 20-year period, called for extending several roads north of the freeway, including Winnetka Avenue.

Under the plan, Monteria Estates will keep its stretch of Winnetka Avenue, immediately south of the freeway, private. But Winnetka Avenue north of the freeway will connect with the freeway and extend north to meet up with the westerly extension of Sesnon Boulevard.

In addition to extending Winnetka Avenue north, the developer will pay to extend Corbin Avenue north across the freeway and west to the new segment of Winnetka Avenue. Rinaldi Street will be extended west to Corbin Avenue, and Mason Avenue north to Sesnon.

When the City Council approved the project in 1990, it left the timetable for construction up to the developer.

Larry Calemine, a spokesman for the Porter Ranch Development Co., said the opening of the ramps will depend on the speed of construction and sales of homes for a proposed subdivision. But he said it now looks as if Winnetka Avenue will be extended from the freeway north to Sesnon Boulevard in the next year or so.

He said a planned fire station near the planned intersection of Corbin and Winnetka avenues for the development is close to completion and will require access to the freeway. The additional street extensions will follow in phases, Calemine said.

City transportation officials said the developer is required to open the roads before the city will allow people to move into the new homes. “It has really been up to how quickly they built the houses,” said T. K. Prime, a senior transportation engineer for the city.

He said the Winnetka Avenue access to the freeway will be a vital traffic relief valve for the 164,840 daily traffic trips it is estimated the Porter Ranch project will generate by 2010.

John Vinciguerra, a member of the 12th Council District transportation management association, agreed. The association, composed of businesses in the district, organizes ride-sharing programs and other efforts to reduce traffic congestion.

“It will alleviate some congestion on other ramps, and if they put a park-and-ride lot near there, that will help too,” he said.