Panel Weighs $10 Million for 9 Sound Walls

Residents in Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks will likely get relief from the roar of freeway traffic near their homes after a county commission votes today on how to distribute $10 million to build sound walls.

The two east county cities are expected to receive the bulk of the state and federal money because freeway noise is among the worst there, according to noise readings, and because the cities have the money to help pay for the walls. Projects in Ventura, Fillmore and Oxnard will receive about $3.8 million.

The Ventura County Transportation Commission is scheduled to approve nine projects, which were determined by noise level, a city’s priority list and ability to contribute 11.5% of the total cost.

If the commission approves the projects, the cities will work with the state Department of Transportation to build the walls, which could be complete in four years.

Simi Valley has the two largest projects, which will take up about half of the $10 million.

“Simi Valley’s projects happened to be very expensive, but they are high in population and very noisy because of the freeway,” said Carlos Hernandez, the commission’s program manager. “We tried to make it equitable by giving everyone who qualified at least one wall.”

Rene Churik lives by one of the planned Simi Valley walls, which will run almost a mile between Erringer Road and Sycamore Drive on the Ronald Reagan Freeway.

She said traffic noise is so bad that she and her husband contemplated moving with their three children to another neighborhood.

“I’m thrilled about the wall because our family room faces the freeway and it interrupts our talking,” she said. “I can’t imagine it being worse anywhere else.”

Studies by a consulting firm hired by the Transportation Commission indicate that that stretch of the freeway, with peak-hour noise of 77 decibels, is the noisiest of any area eligible for a sound wall. The wall planned for that area will be 12 feet high, 4,800 feet long and is expected to cut the noise level by 6 decibels.

Tests conducted one day in the last six months determined the noise levels, officials said. An 80-decibel reading equals the noise in a kitchen with a running garbage disposal, officials said, while a 70-decibel reading is like standing 10 feet from a running vacuum cleaner.

To qualify for a share of the $10 million, an area needed a noise level of at least 67 decibels.

The walls, which cost an average of $500 a foot, will be built where residential development was planned before 1988 or where highway improvements have created dramatic increases in traffic noise, officials said.

About 30 stretches of road throughout the county were eligible for sound walls, Hernandez said.

To receive any part of the $10 million, cities need to have completed environmental and design studies within three years and have the matching money ready for construction.

Sound walls not paid for from the $10 million will be eligible for other state and federal grants in two years, but Hernandez said those projects would have to fight competition from other projects, including widening of the Moorpark Freeway and California 118 between Moorpark and Ventura, and the doubling of the Santa Clara River bridge on the Ventura Freeway.

Santa Paula qualified for several sound walls, including a $1.3-million project along California 126 near Peck Road, but the city doesn’t have the matching money and will have to wait years for Caltrans to pay for the entire project.

If Santa Paula paid for sound walls, it wouldn’t be able to repave its streets, City Manager Norman Wilkinson said.

“There is no way I could give up half of our annual street maintenance budget for that,” he said. “I’m confident that there will be other opportunities that will not require matching funds.”

Hernandez said the commission staff tried to include every city’s top qualifying project.

Camarillo, Ojai and Moorpark each submitted one project, but did not qualify for funding. Port Hueneme, which does not border any major freeway, did not submit any projects.

Areas did not qualify if they were in commercial areas, if the noise level was too low or if the wall would not be effective because of homes sitting on a bluff or hill behind it.

Projects along Moorpark Freeway were not considered because sound wall construction there would be part of a project to widen the road, transportation officials said.

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Proposed Sound Wall Projects

Simi Valley

Westbound Ronald Reagan Freeway: 4,800 feet between Erringer Road and Sycamore Drive

Eastbound Ronald Reagan Freeway: 3,860 feet between Galena Avenue and Tapo Canyon Road

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Thousand Oaks

Southbound Ventura Freeway: 2,200 feet from Wendy Drive to Borchard Road

Southbound Ventura Freeway: 1,055 feet south of the Lynn Road off-ramp

Northbound Ventura Freeway: 1,300 feet south of the Ventu Park Road off-ramp

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Ventura

Southbound Ventura Freeway: 1,312 feet from Seaward Avenue to Peninsula Street

Eastbound Santa Paula Freeway: 4,950 feet from Kimball Road to Wells Road

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Oxnard

Southbound Ventura Freeway: 1,000 feet near Snow Avenue between Vineyard and Rice avenues

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Fillmore

Westbound California 126: 580 feet from D Street to C Street

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Source: Ventura County Transportation Commission