Long-Awaited Funds for Sound Wall OKd

There is good news and bad news for Van Nuys residents living alongside the San Diego Freeway.

The good news is that eight years after the project was first approved, and more than three years after it was delayed because of the 1994 Northridge earthquake, funding has finally come through for a sound wall between Victory Boulevard and Sherman Way.

The bad news is that construction is not likely to begin until 1999.

“This is a lucky one to get the funding; we have a major backlog in this region,” said Raja Mitwasi, a division chief with Caltrans’ Los Angeles district.

The $6.9-million project calls for a sound wall to be built along both sides of a 1.4-mile stretch of the freeway. Neighborhood groups have been trying for years to get the state to build the wall to block noise from the busy freeway.

“This project was on the list, the wall was scheduled to be built. But after the Northridge earthquake, all sound-wall projects were put on hold,” said Stuart Waldman, an aide to Assemblyman Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks).

Although the sound wall was initially approved by the California Transportation Commission in 1989, Waldman said it was shelved after the earthquake because Caltrans was forced to make retrofitting bridges and freeway overpasses its top priority.

The project would still be in limbo had the State Transportation Improvement Program, which is responsible for major repairs on state roads, not come in under budget this year. With a limited amount of funding available, Hertzberg and Assemblyman Scott Wildman (D-Los Angeles) successfully lobbied for the Van Nuys project to get top priority.

Construction cannot begin until Caltrans engineers finish the project’s design and the agency completes a bidding process to hire a contractor, Mitwasi said. Once work is underway, it will take about a year to complete.