6-Lane Bridges Are Planned for Freeway

Anticipating that traffic across the Santa Clara River will only get worse, Caltrans plans to install two six-lane bridges on the Ventura Freeway. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2002 and continue until 2006.

Officials from Ventura and Oxnard and state legislators met with California Department of Transportation officials in Sacramento last week to discuss plans for the new bridges and improvements to the Oxnard Boulevard-101 interchange.

Instead of repairing the decaying bridge that now spans the Santa Clara River, $61 million in Caltrans funding will go toward doubling its size with the new structures.

Oxnard plans to spend $15 million to improve traffic flow at the interchange. City officials are lobbying to improve the access ramp at the same time that Caltrans workers are replacing the Santa Clara River Bridge.

Ventura Mayor Jim Friedman said that steps must be taken quickly to relieve the “horrible bottleneck that occurs there most afternoons and particularly Friday afternoons.”

“The bottom line is the sooner we get it fixed, the sooner there’s going to be much smoother traffic flow for the next 50 years,” Friedman said.