Caltrans to Landscape Strip Along Freeway

Northeastern San Fernando Valley residents are celebrating a long-awaited landscaping project that will beautify a stretch along the Foothill Freeway between Wentworth Street and Sunland Boulevard.

Dozens of coast live oaks and California sycamores will be among the 1,320 trees and shrubs planted on 26 acres of property along the Foothill Freeway during the next six months, Caltrans officials said.

“This is wonderful,” said Kathy Anthony, president of the Sunland-Tujunga Chamber of Commerce. “We’ve been trying to get this done for 16 years. It’s been nothing but shrubbery and trash ever since the freeway was put in.”

Anthony credited Assemblyman Bill Hoge (R-Pasadena) with helping to secure funding for the project.

Caltrans spokesman Rick Holland said delays prevented work from beginning before January 1994. After the Northridge earthquake, the project was put on hold.

“Residents have wanted to do something out there for years,” Holland said. “We finally got the funding, and now everybody’s happy.”

In addition to making the area more pleasing to the eye, Holland said, the landscaping will help screen the road from neighboring homes, mitigate wind and dust and save the state money by eliminating weed-prone areas that require continual maintenance.

Caltrans said 85% of the new plants will be native California species, and each tree and shrub will be watered individually with spray heads to conserve water and reduce energy costs.

The work, which will take about six months to complete, will not affect traffic on the Foothill Freeway, Holland said. And, he said, all the waiting will be worth it.

“It will take a little while, but by this time next year, it ought to be beautiful out there.”