Completion of Street Work Moved Back

Caltrans officials said the reconstruction of the interchange at Valley Circle Boulevard and Calabasas Road is expected to continue for at least one more week as it waits for an electricity source to be made available.

Jim McAllister, a resident engineer for Caltrans, said a date to open all lanes of Calabasas Road and a new Valley Circle eastbound onramp of the Ventura Freeway may be released this week. Caltrans had expected the work to be completed by late June.

Today, Caltrans is scheduled to tap into an electrical service point established by the Department of Water and Power to run the street lights. Tuesday, McAllister said, Caltrans will begin restriping the roads to reopen all lanes to traffic.

“That, of course, is contingent upon everything working out perfectly,” he added. A grand-opening ceremony is scheduled for Aug. 15, although Caltrans expects to open the area prior to that.

The project, which began more than two years ago, entailed building a new Valley Circle offramp, a new onramp eastbound on the Ventura Freeway and sound walls.

McAllister said that in addition to utility problems and delays attributed to coordinating several subcontractors, the difficulties of working in a tight area with heavy traffic further hampered construction.

“If we could have just shut the area down for a year, we probably would have been done by now,” he said.

Delays in that project have put off Calabasas’ schedule to begin construction of its Calabasas Road Streetscape Improvement Plan, which would spruce up Old Town to attract shoppers.

Steven Harris, Calabasas community development director, said the delays have pushed the start date of the $1.8-million project back a few months. This has allowed the city to make some design modifications, saving a portion of the costs.