Caltrans Isn’t Ready to Build Linking Roads

Dear Traffic Talk:

I have been waiting for more than 40 years for at least six freeway connections in the San Fernando Valley to be built.

I call the lack of reliable transportation, using a famous quote, “Taxation without representation.”

Here are a few examples of freeways where the proper connections do not exist:

* The southbound Hollywood Freeway onto the westbound Ventura.

* The northbound Hollywood Freeway to the eastbound Ventura.

* The eastbound Ventura Freeway to the northbound Golden State.

* The southbound Golden State Freeway to the westbound Ventura.

* The northbound Hollywood Freeway to the southbound Golden State.

* The northbound Golden State Freeway to the southbound Hollywood.

Undoubtedly, billions have been approved for the Los Angeles subway system. You would think the authorities would have their priorities straight: projects 40 years old.

Chris B. Hill

San Fernando

Dear Chris:

Transportation funding comes from a number of sources and is awarded to a variety of jurisdictions. If a certain amount of money was not spent on the city’s subway system, those funds wouldn’t necessarily be used to improve state-operated freeways.

Constructing freeway connectors in urban areas is an expensive proposition [that] Caltrans is not ready to tackle at this time, according to authorities.

The freeways mentioned are inter-regional road systems designed for long commutes, said Pat Reid, a Caltrans spokeswoman.

When those highways were built in the 1950s and ‘60s, she said, traffic around Southern California was not heavy enough to warrant “backward flow” connectors--the type described for those locations.

They are called “backward flow” connectors because they service the lighter traffic going in the opposite direction.

To service backward flow traffic, however, an arterial roadway system is built near all freeways, Reid said. Those roadways can serve short-distance travelers to access the freeways.

According to Caltrans, such side roads are serving their function at the locations mentioned.

Also, there are a number of problems associated with construction of connectors in urban areas, Reid said. Among them are right-of-way costs, processing environmental impact documents and obtaining formal agreements from all affected cities and communities.

Dear Traffic Talk:

There are two missing freeway signs on the northbound Glendale Freeway. The signs were blown away during a windstorm last January.

One of the signs used to be just north of the Ventura Freeway. The other was a few miles farther north, just about where the Glendale Freeway enters the Crescenta Valley.

Both signs instructed drivers to move to the left lanes of the Glendale Freeway to catch the westbound Foothill Freeway.

John Megna

La Crescenta

Dear John:

Caltrans is aware of the missing signs, Reid said. New signs have been ordered and workers from the agency’s Special Crews Maintenance Branch expect to install them in early February.

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