City Signals Interest in Taking Over State Road

The city could ease congestion along Topanga Canyon Boulevard by squeezing more lanes into the roadway and improving traffic lights, officials said Tuesday.

The problem: The state of California controls the road, has just spent $6 million to repave it in the San Fernando Valley, and opposes narrowing the lanes for safety reasons.

The proposed solution: The city takes control of the stretch between the Ronald Reagan and Ventura freeways, and makes whatever improvements it sees fit. The Transportation Committee of the Los Angeles City Council thought enough of the proposal Tuesday to order a study.

“Topanga Canyon Boulevard is one of the major north-south thoroughfares,” Councilwoman Laura Chick said. “It is a very important route to the freeways. The city should be able to control it.”

Caltrans is willing to give up control of the boulevard to the city, agency spokeswoman Margie Tiritilli said.

The state is just three months from finishing a $6-million upgrade of the boulevard that includes repaving and new signals and signs, Tiritilli said.

It was unclear whether the city would accept the financial burden of maintaining the roadway. The panel called for a study to look at the cost, whether the state will share in the cost, and whether the state can make additional improvements before relinquishing the boulevard to the city.

The state has rebuffed the city’s other proposal to narrow the lanes, said James Okazaki, assistant general manager of the city Transportation Department. Okazaki said one obstacle is a state standard for highways requiring lanes to be at least 11 feet wide and often 12 feet. If the city takes control, it could narrow the lanes to 9 feet, allowing the city to expand the boulevard from four lanes to six in key stretches, Okazaki said.

“We can get more capacity using city standards instead of state standards,” Okazaki said, adding that there is no firm estimate for the cost of a restriping project.

If the city takes over Topanga, it would be able to control the number and timing of traffic signals on the boulevard to improve traffic flow, he said.

There are too many traffic lights and turn signals on the boulevard, which unnecessarily slow traffic flow, agreed Gordon Murley, president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization.

“I’m not sure the city will improve it, because they haven’t done a good job elsewhere, but they can’t do any worse than the state,” Murley said.

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City officials also hope the work would relieve traffic pressure on the parallel San Diego Freeway. It was one of a package of measures endorsed by the panel that seeks to ease congestion on the Ventura Freeway corridor through the San Fernando Valley.

The committee also recommended the city Transportation Department step in to help the state prepare required plans and studies for several short-term traffic improvement projects for the Ventura and San Diego freeways so they can be submitted for state funding in December. Caltrans is working on two improvement projects at the interchange and has about six more in the planning stages, Tiritilli said.

A report submitted to the city committee identified nearly 20 other small freeway improvement projects that might be pursued, including providing two exit lanes at offramps along the 101 Freeway to installation of message signs to help warn motorists of problems.