County to Help Finish Truck Route to Port

The Ventura County Transportation Commission has agreed to oversee construction of the final piece of a $70-million project to route large cargo trucks off city streets by linking the Ventura Freeway directly with the Port of Hueneme.

As things are now, about 250 big rigs a day rumble over Oxnard and Port Hueneme streets to and from the port. But after years of discussion, the county Transportation Commission has decided to finally change that by acting as the lead local agency in extending Rice Avenue nearly one mile through cropland from Pacific Coast Highway to Hueneme Road.

That extension--plus new Rice Avenue interchanges at both PCH and the Ventura Freeway--will complete by the end of 2003 a truck corridor intended to absorb the spiraling traffic load from the fast-growing port, officials said.

The project has been on regional planning maps for at least 15 years, but a series of problems stalled it. Initial funding evaporated as state priorities for road construction shifted after the 1994 Northridge earthquake to seismic reinforcement of bridges. Then the local jurisdictional debates slowed progress.

“This project has now gone from a wish list to a reality,” said Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), who helped secure $8.9 million in federal funds for the project in 1991 and an additional $16.8 million last year.