PORT HUENEME : Council OKs Pact for New Lab Entrance

The Port Hueneme City Council has approved a joint agreement worked out with the Oxnard Port District that would require the district to construct a new entrance to the Navy’s Civil Engineering Laboratory to help ease traffic in the area.

Port commissioners will consider the agreement at their regular meeting Monday. The Navy is still reviewing the plan.

The proposal calls for the port district to spend an estimated $200,000 to build a new entrance at the northeast corner of the Navy’s property on Port Hueneme Road by the end of January. The present entrance, about 1,000 feet west of the proposed gate, would be closed.

The new entrance, officials said, will help reduce the chance of accidents between cars entering the engineering laboratory and trucks hauling citrus to the port’s Cool Carrier facility, which is scheduled to open Jan. 1.

Truck traffic is expected to increase significantly when operations begin at the refrigerated, 137,000-square-foot warehouse, which will be immediately adjacent to the engineering laboratory, said Bill Buenger, the port’s deputy executive director.

A provision of the agreement requires the port district to make additional improvements for an estimated $100,000 if the Navy has not abandoned the 33-acre engineering laboratory site by April, 1997.