Caltrans Lacks Funds, Room to Maneuver on 118 Turn

Dear Street Smart:

It appears that AT&T; is storing its utility trucks on land on the south side of California 118 between Moorpark and Somis.

The entrance is between Grimes Canyon and the railroad track crossing. It is the same entrance used for the landfill.

To gain access to this entrance, a left turn is required for westbound traffic.

This portion of the highway has no left-turn lane or center median to safely make this turn.

To make matters worse, the entrance is after a curve in the highway.

Westbound traffic must suddenly come to a stop behind the vehicle making the turn.

I travel this stretch daily. I know about the hazard ahead of time and I am cautious while making this curve. What about the driver behind me, unaware that I came to a stop behind someone making a left turn?

Thank God I don’t drive a Pinto. What can be done?

Perry Boeck

Moorpark

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Dear Reader:

Not much.

Caltrans engineers have recently completed a study of the section of California 118 that you asked about, but you may not consider the result good news.

Engineers say there is not enough room to install a left-hand turn there.

“Installation of a left-hand turn would require widening Route 118 and paving the access road to the Moorpark waste water treatment plant,” said Caltrans spokeswoman Pat Reid.

There is no money for such extensive improvements at this time, she said. But the agency does have long-range plans to widen the highway between Moorpark’s city limits and Vineyard Avenue near Oxnard.

By the way, Caltrans investigators said that segment of road is not a high-accident location. “No accidents have been attributed to this intersection,” Reid said.

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Dear Street Smart:

I commute from Ventura to Thousand Oaks to get to work each day, and I have noticed a problem that comes up along a short stretch of the Ventura Freeway on summer afternoons.

Frequently on my drive home, I am confronted with the bright sunlight as I’m driving down the Conejo Grade, just south of Camarillo.

There’s about an eighth of a mile near the bottom of the hill where you cannot see the lane designations. It may be because of the sunshine, but I think there needs to be some re-striping done.

Can you find out if there are any plans to improve that part of the freeway?

Allison Baumgardner

Ventura

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Dear Reader:

After studying the bottom of the Conejo Grade in response to your question, a Caltrans official agreed that most of the stripes and dots that designate the lanes had worn out over a 200-or-so-foot section.

“They’re gone all the way across the road,” said Caltrans Supt. Dave Chapman. “It’s not even an eighth of a mile, but the dots are missing for all the lanes for just a couple of hundred feet.”

Chapman said he would notify the Los Angeles-based crew that is responsible for maintaining stripes and dots along California highways.

“At night, it could be a problem,” he said. “It needs to be addressed as soon as possible.”

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Dear Street Smart:

In the past couple of weeks, I have noticed that many streets in the Thousand Oaks area are being worked on. For example, the corner of Erbes Road and Avenida de los Arboles, along with many small residential side streets.

Although the work area causes the roads to be very bumpy during construction, there are no cones around the work area to alert the driver of upcoming bumps.

Therefore, if you are driving even as slow as 25 to 35 mph and you drive over one of these work areas, it can cause damage to the alignment to your car.

Doesn’t the city require cones or something to be put around work areas so the drivers can slow down when they approach these areas?

Joyce Standley

Thousand Oaks

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Dear Reader:

Traffic officials concede that this is an especially busy summer for repairs and maintenance in Thousand Oaks.

But crews already are doing their best to alert drivers to upcoming road projects, including signs, newspaper advisories and other means of publicity, said Jeff Knowles, the city’s top traffic analyst.

“We have many, many miles of roads being overlayed,” he said. “But generally they’re not considered driving hazards.”

The resurfacing does cause small “lips” in the street, where the slurry meets the older roadway, Knowles said. But road crews do their best to smooth over the bumps, he said.

“We have about $4 million worth of overlays this year,” he said. “We try to make it as safe as possible because we do want to avoid any damage or injuries.

“At the same time, we don’t want to spend too much on temporary fixes when the permanent overlays are just a few weeks away,” he said.