Studio City Braces for Life Under Construction

Some Studio City residents, who have been bracing for noise and traffic disruptions when Universal Studios begins its proposed expansion, will get a small early sampling this spring when the MTA briefly shuts down a short stretch of the Hollywood Freeway and routes traffic through their neighborhoods at night.

Current plans call for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority to close the Studio City/Ventura Boulevard offramp from the northbound Hollywood Freeway for up to six times over an 18-month period.

The MTA will be demolishing the offramp bridge that spans the freeway near Lankershim and Ventura boulevards. In its place will go a six-lane arc-shaped road that will link Ventura Boulevard to the new Red Line station and Universal’s main entrance on Lankershim Boulevard.

Whenever the freeway is closed for work it will be between midnight Saturday and 9 a.m. Sunday, a Caltrans official said. Other work will result in periodic lane closures.

When the freeway is shut, northbound traffic will exit at Lankershim Boulevard and get back on just north of the boulevard. However, southbound traffic will be routed through neighborhood streets during the predawn hours.

Traffic from the southbound Hollywood Freeway (170) would be diverted onto the eastbound Ventura Freeway (134) then off at Cahuenga Boulevard. The detour will continue south on Lankershim Boulevard to Ventura Boulevard, where traffic can rejoin the freeway.

Travelers on the east and southbound 101 will be routed off at Vineland, then onto Ventura Boulevard.

The five-stage construction project is expected to begin in April and last at least 18 months. It’s part of the $834-million “segment 3” phase of the subway construction that’s expected to be complete in May 2000.

Neighbors, including some of the same residents who have complained the loudest about Universal’s expansion plans, contend that the project will create demolition and traffic noise while they sleep, and ultimately, once the new access road is complete, dump too many cars onto Ventura Boulevard. A recent newsletter from the Studio City Residents Assn. calls the freeway closure and ramp project “cause for major concern.”

“The short term concern is absolutely about the noise and the traffic,” said Tony Lucente of the Studio City Residents Assn. “They may have to use explosives, so it’s going to be noisy.

“People in the area have already had to endure so much impact from the Metro Rail,” he said, adding that this is “only the beginning.”

“There’s a combination of factors: Metro Rail, the Universal expansion . . . The day of the eastern edge of our community being the sleepy end, that’s over. The alarm just went off.”

MTA officials anticipate that the portions of the bridge construction project, especially the demolition and some parts of the new construction, will exceed existing MTA noise limits and are seeking public input on how to address the problem.

“We’re going to be giving them an opportunity to say what are their concerns,” said James Sowell, MTA manager of environmental compliance, adding that a public meeting may be scheduled for the project.

“We’re looking at the noise levels . . . but we anticipate that for demolition and possibly some installation we cannot meet our own noise criterion.”

Sowell was sympathetic to neighbors’ concerns about noise, but added that because the MTA is limited in how long it can shut the freeway, there is no easy alternative.

“You could use quieter methods, but they take longer,” he said.

Studio City residents are expected to discuss the matter with City Councilman Joel Wachs at an association meeting Tuesday.

Even after the MTA project is completed, drivers on that segment of the 101 may still face some disruptions.

Universal has been instructed by the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission to work with Caltrans to study the feasibility of building an onramp from Universal Center Drive to the southbound Hollywood Freeway. Caltrans has agreed to participate in the study and said that, at least in concept, the ramp seems feasible.

The commission also recommended that Universal study the feasibility of building an exit ramp from the southbound Hollywood Freeway to Universal Center Drive.

Universal stressed that the MTA project is unrelated to its proposed expansion. No construction schedule has been established yet for the Universal project.