Money to Improve 405-101 Freeway Interchange Stays on Track

Projects to relieve congestion on the interchange where the San Diego and Ventura freeways meet swerved around a potential roadblock Thursday at a meeting of the California Transportation Commission, remaining on track for funding approval at the end of March.

In his first week as chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee, Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch) asked the commission to delay millions of dollars worth of projects, including the San Fernando Valley interchange, for an unspecified period while Gov. Gray Davis’ administration settles in.

Alarmed by the prospect of any delay in improvements to California’s fourth-busiest interchange--and perhaps most troublesome traffic snarl--Assemblyman Wally Knox (D-Los Angeles) made an impassioned plea to the commission to separate the interchange from other projects.

“There may be other, larger projects the administration should get their arms around, but on this one, show people that when they want action, they get action,” he said.

“In the past four months, the 405 and 101 intersection has gone from being a burden a half-million people suffered with every day to being intolerable. There is an immediate, strong public outcry saying, ‘We want to break ground!’ ”

Knox told the commission that he believed it was possible to get work started this year on the $13.1-million improvement project.

“These are small, amazingly inexpensive improvements. Show the public that their government can do something for a change,” he said.

David Fleming, vice chairman of the California Transportation Commission and a Studio City attorney, also tried to impress the panel with the magnitude of the problem. “If we could equate transportation with health care, this would be a situation where the patient needs to get to an emergency room and fast,” he said.

In the end, the Valley’s traffic snarl fared well by being thrown in with road problems all over the state. Commission members decided to go forward with all regional traffic improvements already on the drawing board, in part because setbacks could take some Northern California projects into snow season, when work would be impossible.

The Davis administration also weighed in with support for moving forward without delay on projects already in the pipeline.

Jose Medina, the new director of the state Department of Transportation, read a letter from Maria Contreras-Sweet, secretary of business, transportation and housing, which stated in part that the governor wanted “funds already allocated to be administered without undue delay.”

It was the administration’s first public clarification of transportation policy.

Even as Fleming, the Los Angeles member of the commission, expressed satisfaction that improvements on the Valley interchange had not been further delayed, he pointed out that while the projects remained on track, it’s still a slow track.

“We have to find a way in those few situations which arise that are of an emergency nature to short-circuit the process and avoid months and months of approval processes while congestion builds up daily,” he said. “The 101-405 interchange is like the problems caused by the Northridge earthquake. It requires immediate attention.”

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Knox, too, barely stopped to celebrate avoiding one obstacle before eyeing those still ahead.

“Breaking ground on these first projects is just the first step,” he said. “It’s a long process. You have to dog it every step of the way. . . .

“The simple reality is that a half-million people have their lives disrupted every day,” he said. “The only way these projects move rapidly is when the public demands unequivocal action.”