Doors in Sound Wall Let Work Crews In, Not the Noise

Dear Street Smart:

Why do the sound walls that line much of the Ventura Freeway and other freeways around Southern California have doors in some places?

Are they doors? And if they are, what is their purpose? Some of these things that look like doors built into the sound walls seem to be boarded up. What gives?

C. Douglas McGee, Ventura

Dear Reader:

Lo and behold! “They’re just what they look like,” said Gary Ethier, an engineer with the state Department of Transportation, which builds freeways and sound walls.

“They are doors used by our maintenance people to gain access to the slopes behind the freeway for maintenance purposes,” he said. “For us to do any work along the slopes, the only access we might have is from the freeway side.”

Ethier said continual trash pickup and shrub-trimming mandate that workers be able to access the emergency lanes as well as the slopes behind the freeway sound walls.

“Rather than walk a half a mile or more, we put the doors in every 500 feet or so,” he said. “The hills just get full of trash.”

By the way, the freeway portals are typically sealed off to prevent unauthorized use, Ethier said.

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Dear Street Smart:

Drivers often turn left in and out of the Mobil station and International House of Pancakes restaurant driveway over the double-double yellow lines on Borchard Road, just north of Michael Drive in Newbury Park.

They also turn left into the Chevron station on the other side of the street. Is this legal? If it’s not, could they put in an island to prevent those illegal turns?

William Pudd, Newbury Park

Dear Reader:

The actions you describe are a crime. Drivers who turn left across a pair of double-yellows are guilty of an infraction and face stiff penalties if caught.

“The double-double yellow by California vehicle standards is exactly like a raised median,” said Jeff Knowles, a Thousand Oaks traffic engineer. “Nobody is allowed to cross it. People need to consider that a brick wall.”

Your analysis of the situation is keen, however, as left-turn drivers frequently block through traffic because there is limited room for them in the driveways.

Knowles said an island is indeed planned for that stretch of Borchard Road in the not-too-distant future.

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Dear Street Smart:

When turning west on Wooley Road from northbound Kelp Street in Oxnard and looking to the east for oncoming traffic, vision is obstructed by the plants in the raised divider on Wooley Road.

Since traffic on Wooley Road moves at a rapid pace, I feel that something should be done with the divider.

There is traffic from Christa McAuliffe Elementary School that travels onto Wooley Road all day long. This is a potentially dangerous move, pulling out into the oncoming traffic with limited visibility.

I would like to see the median lowered if possible and the bushes kept trimmed as low as possible to eliminate any accidents. Is there an easy solution?

Mark A. Beckner, Oxnard

Dear Reader:

Overworked traffic officials in Oxnard appreciate it when drivers alert them to potentially dangerous situations.

So much so, in fact, that when contacted by Street Smart, transportation analyst David Denton said he would promptly inspect the intersection you questioned.

“It’s quite a common occurrence for the bushes to grow,” he said. “But if they are obstructing visibility, then we certainly will take a look at it.”

Denton said he and his crew members cannot be everywhere at once when looking for shrubs to trim.

“They may be short when I’m driving by there and then, two months later, it may become a problem,” he said. “We encourage people to call us when these problems arise.

That all-important number: 385-7866.