Questions and Answers About Your Commute : Refinements at Interchange Nearly Done

Dear Traffic Talk:

The new interchange at the Ventura Freeway and Mulholland Drive/Valley Circle Boulevard, particularly the eastbound freeway offramp, and the tangle of Mulholland and Calabasas Road present a nightmare. Can you tell us what the eventual plan for this area is?

Charles Robertson

Woodland Hills

Dear Charles:

According to Jim McAllister, the California Department of Transportation’s project manager at the site, the westbound freeway offramp and the eastbound freeway offramp at Valley Circle Boulevard have been completed. A new, wider overpass has also been built.

The stretch of Long Valley Road leading to an onramp to the westbound freeway is currently one lane in either direction; its widening to two lanes in each direction is expected to be completed by the middle of this month. Also underway is the widening of Calabasas Road from where the eastbound freeway offramp connects with it to Mulholland Drive.

The Calabasas Road onramp to the eastbound freeway is slated to be finished in early March.

The widening of Mulholland from the freeway to a point about 1,000 feet south of the freeway is expected to be completed in mid-March, McAllister said. That stretch is being widened from two to three lanes in each direction.

McAllister said the project has been hampered by the many gas lines, water pipes and telephone cables in the ground at the site that had to be removed or worked around.

“We appreciate the public’s patience with this whole project,” McAllister said. “I know people have gone through a lot.” The $10-million project is expected to be finished in April.

Dear Traffic Talk:

Thanks to you, one of your readers and Caltrans, we were able to get some white lines on the Ventura Freeway. Now, how can we get some lines on the rest of the freeway system? The Golden State Freeway into town is now bare of lines, as are most freeways.

The buttons and reflectors do not delineate the lanes well--they turn dull and many are missing at the freeway onramps. Under certain lighting conditions they become invisible.

Our original freeways had solid lines and were a joy to drive. Now even the intermittent lines are disappearing. If this is an economy measure, then perhaps Caltrans could paint every other lane boundary. On a four-lane freeway, it could paint just one stripe between the second and third lanes. That will give us a guide as the outer lanes already have painted boundary lines.

With narrower lanes these days, and large trucks that barely fit inside them, it is imperative that we get some good painted lanes in order to save lives.

Richard R. Jenkins

Northridge

Dear Richard:

Caltrans spokeswoman Patricia Reid said that Caltrans prefers ceramic lane markers to painted stripes because the buttons are longer-lasting and create a rumbling effect when cars go over them, discouraging motorists from straying into others’ lanes unintentionally. Stripes must be repainted every six months to a year, Reid said.

Traffic Talk appears Fridays in The Times Valley Edition. Readers are invited to submit comments and questions about traffic in the Valley. Please write to Traffic Talk, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. Include your full name, address and day and evening phone numbers. Letters may be edited, and no anonymous letters will be accepted. To record your comments, call (818) 772-3303. Fax letters to (818) 772-3385.