Century Freeway Opening Is a Road Rally : Transit: Part carnival, part sporting event mark debut of $2.2-billion project.

The Century Freeway--Los Angeles County’s first high-tech roadway and the most expensive in the nation’s history--opened Thursday with Gov. Pete Wilson as the premier commuter.

Wielding giant scissors, Wilson cut a string of yellow silk poppies and stepped into a 1936 Auburn Boattail Speedster that trundled along the empty freeway.

“It’s the largest project in the history of the state Department of Transportation,” said Wilson, before trying out the 17.3-mile ribbon of concrete, officially known as the Glenn M. Anderson Freeway. “You’re not going to see one like this again soon.”

A crowd of about 1,500 turned out for the three-hour morning dedication festivities, which seemed part carnival and part sporting event.

Sleek futuristic vehicles and a bevy of Corvettes followed in Wilson’s wake. The Los Angeles Kings’ mascot--a man dressed as a Himalayan snow leopard in a hockey jersey--padded along the concrete and hopped into the open trunk of a car to wave during a short parade. There were belly-dancers, Japanese folk musicians, American Indian storytellers and the USC Trojan Marching Band.

It was a day some Angelenos thought they would never see. The $2.2-billion freeway project had teetered precariously for almost a decade, delayed by litigation and bitter protests. From start to finish, the project consumed more than 30 years--or almost triple the time usually spent on constructing a freeway.

“This project has been a long time coming, but it’s been worth the wait because time has made the project about more than asphalt, . . . steel or . . . concrete. It’s about people, “ said Rodney Slater, administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, which financed 92% of the eight-lane roadway stretching between Norwalk and El Segundo.

As a result of a lawsuit filed in 1972, highway officials were forced to create a unique social program as a means of compensating the 21,000 residents displaced by the project. As they built the freeway, they also constructed housing, launched job-training classes, and initiated a campaign to hire firms owned by women and minorities.

The roadway is equipped with the latest in highway technology, including sensors buried in the pavement and linked to computers, thus monitoring traffic flow. It also has meters to regulate traffic on the ramps that connect Interstate 105 to four freeways. There are closed-circuit television cameras to alert officials to accidents. The Green Line trolley, slated to open in May, 1995, will run in the freeway median.

The freeway opened for traffic at 3:13 p.m., starting at its eastern end, the Bellflower Boulevard on-ramp. Caltrans crews planned to work their way west, opening ramp after ramp following inspections. The freeway was opened in both directions by 4 p.m., said Pat Reid, a Caltrans spokeswoman.

All this came at a high cost--so high, in fact, that most officials are convinced a project of this magnitude is unlikely to be built again in a dense urban corridor such as Los Angeles.

In Los Angeles County, a region known for its love affair with the automobile, freeways will be widened or modernized. They might have car pools or double-decks added. Those with gaps may well have them filled.

In Orange County, transportation officials have taken a decidedly different approach with the construction of California’s first modern toll road, which will open this weekend. It is the first 3.2 miles of a planned 30-mile route.

Nationwide, only 87 miles remain to be completed in the 42,796-mile interstate highway network. Those projects are in New Jersey, Hawaii, Louisiana, Massachusetts, South Carolina and Washington.

Spectators arrived early in the morning for a glimpse of Los Angeles County’s newest freeway, which carved a concrete swath through nine cities. Tom Carabia Jr., 40, remembered how boyhood friends from his family’s Paramount neighborhood abruptly moved away as Caltrans bought up the properties. But Thursday, he celebrated the promise of the freeway, the end of the chaos and the healing of communities that had been sliced in two.

“It’s been a big headache, but now that it’s all done, it’s kind of exciting,” Carabia said.

John Lee, a 64-year-old Burbank resident, attended the festivities with the relish of a gourmet tasting a fine pate. As a hobby, Lee said he attends freeway and interchange openings. He traveled to San Diego for the opening of Interstate 805 in Mission Valley. He watched officials cut the ribbon over Interstate 405. But, he sadly noted, there have been very few of these gala events in recent years.

“All of a sudden, it seemed the ol’ cow dried up,” said Lee, a retired Lockheed toolmaker. “This is the biggest whoop-de-do we’ll probably see.”

Others, too, came with a sense that they were witnessing history. Wendy Serrano cradled her baby Deziree, hoping she would watch even though the 11-month-old would never remember the big day. “She is seeing history being made; she can know that she was here, “ Serrano said.

Many Angelenos have joked that the roadway’s unofficial name--the Century Freeway--refers to the duration of the project. But the name actually originated from an early route along Century Boulevard that was discarded. The freeway is named for Glenn M. Anderson, the congressman who helped obtain money for the project.

The freeway is expected to carry between 8,000 and 12,000 vehicles per hour, traveling in both directions, during prime commuting hours. Caltrans predicts that it will ease traffic on surrounding surface streets by as much as 25%.

But most experts concede that it will not be long before this freeway garners its share of traffic jams and SigAlerts.

Jerry Baxter, director of the Caltrans district office, admonished the opening day crowd: “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your freeway. Use it safely.”