Work Begins on Car-Pool Lane

Caltrans has begun work on adding a car-pool lane to a 10-mile stretch of the San Diego Freeway through the San Fernando Valley.

The $12-million project will add diamond lanes in both directions on the San Diego Freeway between the Ventura and Golden State freeways. Workers have started restriping the freeway, said California Department of Transportation spokesman Russell Snyder.

Officials plan no long-term lane closures, but in the beginning stages of the project workers may close one lane of the San Diego Freeway between the Simi Valley and Golden State freeways in the evenings until temporary concrete barriers can be erected.

After that, the work will be done behind the barriers in the median or on the right shoulder, out of view of traffic.

The project is to be completed by the end of 1996 by the Fontana-based Brutoco Engineering and Construction Co., one of the contracting firms involved in rebuilding the earthquake-shattered Simi Valley Freeway.