Dear Street Smart:Recently we had to drive...

Dear Street Smart:

Recently we had to drive to Northern California in a new car, and wanted to check the speedometer using the “measured five-mile” signs on the freeways. What we discovered is that there are none on Interstate 5 at all and all the signs on California 99 are just about completely demolished. Returning on 99 we saw at least 12 sections between Sacramento and Grapevine and not a single section remains intact.

What agency is responsible for maintaining those signs and why is it so deficient?

Roger Wing, Reseda

Dear Reader:

Caltrans is responsible for maintaining the signs, but the agency’s resources in that part of the state are stretched so thin that it is difficult to keep up with repairs.

Caltrans spokesman Steve Saville said the agency’s Fresno office is responsible for maintaining state roads from Grapevine in the south to Madera County in the north. And as you know, there are some lonely stretches along the way.

Saville said treasure hunters often swipe the signs as souvenirs.

Vast distances mean it might be several weeks before crews can make repairs or replace missing signs. Even then, fixing broken speedometer signs often takes a back seat to replacing a fallen directional sign or cleaning up a spilled load of tomatoes.

“We have to work from a list of priorities,” Saville said. Nonetheless he urges motorists to call Caltrans with information about broken or missing signs.

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Dear Street Smart:

Can you provide an update on when the Whites Canyon Road extension will open connecting Soledad Canyon to Sierra Highway in the Santa Clarita Valley? The road looks complete and is desperately needed to relieve congestion in Canyon Country.

Matt Shifflett, Valencia

Dear Reader:

You and scores of other motorists will be happy to know that ribbon-cutting for the Whites Canyon-Via Princessa extension is scheduled in just two weeks--June 7.

The opening will culminate a project that began back in September, 1992. It extends the infamous Whites Canyon “bridge to nowhere”--which for a long while dead-ended over the middle of the Santa Clara River--to Via Princessa, which connects to Rainbow Glen Drive on the west and Sierra Highway to the east.

Los Angeles County and Santa Clarita officials had originally hoped to open the road at the end of April, but earthquake damage to a bridge over the railroad tracks south of the river set the project back several weeks.

However, the June 7 opening is still ahead of schedule, says Marty Saine, project manager with the Simi Valley-based contractor C. A. Rasmussen. The $10.2-million project contract allowed for opening of the extension in November, Saine said.

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Dear Street Smart:

Every morning on the way to work, I pass through an intersection in Woodland Hills that is driving me, and I am sure many other drivers, crazy.

The intersection is Corbin Avenue and Ventura Boulevard. I must wait an interminable length of time to turn left onto eastbound Ventura from southbound Corbin.

At 6:15 a.m., there are not very many cars traveling on Ventura, yet the sensors buried in the street on Corbin do not respond to the traffic. Frequently, I see motorists cutting through the mini-mall on the corner just so they will not have to wait for the light.

What’s the city’s story on why the sensors do not work at this intersection?

Wayne Anthony, Canoga Park

Dear Reader:

The city’s story, according to traffic engineer Brian Gallagher, is that the sensors are working fine at that intersection.

The wait you experience at the light has nothing to do with the sensors but rather the cycle of the signal, which itself is regulated by a master timing system along the length of Ventura known as the Automated Traffic Surveillance and Control system. ATSAC uses closed-circuit television cameras and pavement sensors to monitor streets and synchronize signals.

Because Ventura Boulevard is a main east-west thoroughfare, the signals favor Ventura traffic, especially during rush hour. When you arrive at the Corbin intersection each morning, you run up against that heavy favoritism.

“Right around 6:15, the morning rush hour starts, and we need to have the timing in on Ventura Boulevard a little before that so it can handle all the traffic once it gets there,” Gallagher says. “Otherwise, we’ll have a lot of backups we can’t get rid of for a while.”

The big picture is the important thing. You may not see many cars whiz by Corbin right then, but that is just one intersection out of dozens, and signal timing must be in sync all along Ventura for traffic to flow properly from one end of the San Fernando Valley to the other.

“If we treat each intersection specially, it might be good for one or two side streets like Corbin, (but) it’d be horrible” for the rest of the motorists along Ventura, Gallagher says.