Traffic Flow at Congested Intersection to Improve

After years of delays because of a lack of money, transportation officials finally are drawing up long-sought improvements to one of the most-used intersections in town.

Real estate appraisers are now evaluating several parcels of land off Valentine Road, as traffic engineers plot $12 million in road improvements to the junction of Victoria Avenue and the Ventura Freeway.

The first phase would include a redesign of Valentine Road and the southbound freeway on- and offramps at Victoria Avenue and the widening of the Victoria Avenue freeway under-crossing.

That $9-million project is scheduled for completion by the end of 1998--which is akin to the speed of light in highway-improvement time.

“Three years ago, this project wasn’t going anywhere,” said Nazir Lalani, the city’s top transportation engineer. “And here we are, in the planning stage.”

Another project, a $3-million realignment of the northbound freeway on- and offramps at Victoria Avenue, has yet to be budgeted, however.

Lalani credited the relative speed of the current project to a $4.5-million federal grant that will make renovations to the Victoria Avenue interchange possible.

“Now the traffic improvement project is on the fast track,” Lalani said. “This thing’s going faster than anything I’ve ever seen.”

But that money would be taken back by federal regulators if the project fails to stay on track, prompting Lalani and his team of consultants to make these renovations their highest priority.

“Everyone is focusing on keeping up with the schedule,” Lalani said.

Engineers have recognized for years that traffic backs up drastically along Valentine Road and Victoria Avenue. But they have been unable to remedy the design problems without the needed funds.

According to traffic counts, Victoria-Valentine is second only to the intersection of Main Street and Mills Road in daily use. The Johnson Drive-Ventura Freeway junction rates the third-worst intersection in Ventura.

More than 115,000 cars whiz by Victoria on the freeway every day. Another 45,000 vehicles a day use Victoria Avenue, long considered a key artery through west Ventura County.

Many of those cars are filled with visitors and workers at the County Government Center. To the south, Victoria Avenue serves Silver Strand Beach, the Channel Islands Harbor and much of south Oxnard.

“It’s a mess,” said Charles Skuse, a salesman at the Green Thumb nursery on Victoria Avenue just north of the freeway.

“It gets all backed up every day,” he said. “A lot of times, when customers are trying to leave, there’s just no place for them to go. Any improvements would help a lot.”

When the project is completed, the intersection will feature real-time video cameras instead of the “loop detectors” that now regulate timing at the signal.

“The new traffic signals with their cameras will allow traffic engineers to optimize the traffic flow along Victoria Avenue and at the freeway ramps,” Lalani said.

Jim Salzer has owned a music and gift store at Victoria and Valentine since 1972.

Across the street, he has operated a video-rental shop for 11 years. He knows all about the traffic problems at the intersection, and his only regret it that it has taken so long to make improvements.

“Development and building went on so long,” he said. “The problem kept getting worse and nothing was in the hopper for many, many years.”

Still, Salzer has mixed emotions about the improvements because he knows business will probably drop during construction.

“It’s going to be tough because of the interruption,” he said. “But my customers at the record store have always been willing to fight the traffic. They’re different and they have style.”

One of those customers is Damon Mortland of Camarillo. He said getting in and out of the record store is always a challenge.

“It takes 10 minutes to get out of this parking lot every time I leave,” he said Friday, a new compact disc in his hand. “There’s always 30 cars lined up at the signal.”

NEXT STEP

Appraisers are now in the process of determining the value of land that the city needs to acquire for the $9-million Ventura Freeway-Victoria Avenue interchange. Plans are scheduled to be finalized by January 1997, and construction is scheduled to begin in August 1997. The project is scheduled for completion in December 1998.