Funds Sought for Freeway Sound Walls

Some motorists don’t like them because they block out the landscape. Some businesses oppose them because they obstruct their advertising.

But for many homeowners who live near freeways, sound walls are a welcome improvement to their quality of life.

If the Ventura County Transportation Commission is successful, more freeway sound walls will be erected in the near future. On Friday, the commission started the process of securing $10 million in federal and state money for new sound wall construction.

The commission staff has drawn up a tentative list of proposed projects along major freeways, including southbound Ventura Freeway from Seaward Avenue to Peninsula Street and westbound California 34 from Merritt Avenue to Camino Alvarez.

The walls, which cost an average of $450 a foot, would be built where residential development preceded a freeway or where dramatic increases in traffic noise have produced uncomfortable living conditions, officials said.

But Oxnard Councilman Tom Holden, an alternate transportation commissioner, said at Friday’s meeting that he was uncomfortable committing local resources for sound wall construction, because it could drain funds needed in the future for more important projects.

“It means we’re locked in, and I don’t like blanketly saying these walls are fine, when we might want the money for other projects,” he said.

Commission Executive Director Ginger Gherardi said there were no other important projects eligible for this money.

Although sound walls are generally supported by homeowners, they are sometimes controversial with businesses who want their advertising seen from the freeway.

Some cities, like Simi Valley, also are concerned that walls of up to 25 feet tall would block drivers’ views of the landscape from the freeway.

“When you drive along the 118 now, you see beautiful hills, and we need to look at whether these walls would cut out those views and to what extent that is a negative,” Assistant City Manager Laura Magelnicki said.

A sound wall is proposed for about 5,000 feet north and south of the Ronald Reagan Freeway between Erringer Road and Sycamore Drive. Magelnicki is concerned the wall would have to be torn out in 15 or 20 years when the freeway is widened.

“We need to determine how much the city’s contribution would be and if it is worth it. It looks like it could be sizable,” she said.

Carlos Hernandez, a Transportation Commission program manager, said cities would be required to put up 11.5% in matching funds if they want sound walls. “Everything depends on how receptive the cities are,” he said.

Rick Raives, transportation engineer for the city of Ventura, said his city is very receptive.

“We’ve gone through and seen that there’s a whole lot of areas where we could use them,” he said. One of those areas, the northbound Main Street offramp at Ventura Freeway and California 126, is the source of numerous complaints from residents, he said.

“There are condominiums that sit just north of Montgomery Ward and when some of the trees came down, the noise was brought to their attention,” Raives said. “Trees seem to have a placebo effect because people think it’s quieter with the trees because they can’t see anything. But trees do not block sound, even though people think they do.”

The city of Thousand Oaks submitted three projects along the Ventura Freeway--southbound from the Wendy Drive onramp to the Borchard Road onramp, northbound from Hampshire Road to Conejo School Road and northbound between Lynn Road and Ventu Park Road.

City Public Works Director Don Nelson said he hasn’t heard any complaints from residents in those areas.

“Our focus has been for walls along [California] 23, not the 101,” he said. Sound walls along California 23 fall into a different funding category because they would be done in conjunction with a construction project, transportation officials said.

Sound walls are generally 8 to 10 feet tall, although they can go as high as 25 feet. The walls are made from 8-inch-thick blocks of concrete.

The earliest the new walls could be built would be about two years.