Caltrans Paves Way to Upgrade 118-34 Crossing

Caltrans unveiled plans Thursday for smoothing out one of Ventura County’s stickiest highway bottlenecks, the Somis intersection of California 118 and 34.

By 2000, Caltrans hopes to begin a yearlong project to expand the number of lanes, install new signals and generally upgrade the farmland crossroads to handle increasingly heavy commuter and truck traffic, Caltrans engineers said.

But first the California Department of Transportation must move water, power and gasoline pipelines, do an environmental review and buy nearly an acre of farmland around the intersection for rights of way, said Thomas Gildersleeve, a Caltrans senior transportation engineer.

“If we don’t run into major problems with the utilities, this is what we’re going to do,” he said, spreading a map across the table during a news conference at Ventura County Supervisor Judy Mikels’ office in Simi Valley.

Today, an average of 1,962 vehicles an hour pass through the intersection at the height of the afternoon commute, he said.

Most of that traffic is squeezed into one lane in each direction along California 118 and 34 and Donlon Road.

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The only safety valves are a right-turn lane for eastbound 118 vehicles turning onto California 34, also known as Somis Road, and a two-way turn island on California 118 where westbound traffic waits to turn onto Highway 34 and eastbound traffic waits to enter Donlon Road.

The $3-million Caltrans project would expand Highway 34 to four lanes at the intersection, broaden 118 to six lanes just east of the intersection, and install signal lights, signs and road striping to streamline the intersection, he said.

“Now, people must wait more than one cycle [of stoplights] to go through the intersection in the peak hours,” Gildersleeve said. The changes would mean that “nobody will ever have to wait for more than one cycle,” he said.

The goal is to make the intersection smooth enough to handle a peak load of 2,500 cars an hour that Caltrans expects will build up by 2010.

Ventura County officials welcomed the expansion plans, which they say will unclog one of the county’s increasingly popular arteries for commuters and trucks.

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“There’s been a consensual recognition that this is a significant problem to the residents of Ventura County who use this as a commuter route,” said William “Butch” Britt, a county deputy public works director.

“It’s a shorter drive than the Ventura Freeway, and it’s a pleasant drive unless you run into an idiot driver,” said Mikels. “But I’ve spent up to eight minutes at that intersection. I think one reason people use it more is that once the 118 at Saticoy got straightened out and fixed, it became more popular because it is a direct route to the 126.”

Commuters aren’t the only ones who have discovered the alternate route.

The number of trucks rumbling through the growing city of Moorpark has gone from more than 2,000 a day to an estimated 3,500 a day since 1987, said Joe Piechowski, an aide to Assemblyman Nao Takasugi (R-Oxnard).

The Caltrans plan will also cost the county about $100,000 for signs and signals, as opposed to the $923,000 it had considered spending to realign Donlon directly with California 34 to create a four-way intersection, Mikels said.

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How Traffic Will Be Affected

Caltrans wants to expand the roads around the intersection this way:

* California 34 would be widened to two lanes in either direction at the juncture with California 118. One northbound lane would carry cars turning both east and west onto 118 and those preparing to turn onto Donlon Road. The other would let cars turn right onto eastbound 118 without stopping.

* Eastbound 118 would have three lanes--the center one for through traffic, the southernmost one carrying cars from California 34 toward a merge point with the through traffic, and the northernmost lane for traffic turning left onto Donlon Road.

* An extra set of signal lights would be installed on westbound 118 just before Donlon Road, to keep rush-hour traffic from backing up and blocking the intersection.

* The westbound road would be split into three lanes including one through lane and two left-turn lanes bound for 34.

* The eastbound 118 before the intersection would have one through lane and one right-turn lane for 34.