Getting an Earful

On a small stretch of Screenland Drive next to the Ventura Freeway, a rusty chain link fence is the only barrier between Dan Zappin’s house and the speeding cars.

“It’s tough to sleep,” said Zappin, 25, who has lived in the house for one year. “And if we go out . . . we have to yell to talk to one another.”

Zappin and his neighbors may be yelling for a few more years. He lives in an area that has been promised a sound wall since 1989. But in spite of $187 million approved last July for 42 construction projects in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, some residents may not get relief before 2005.

The California Transportation Commission said construction dates have been accelerated by several months to several years as a result of the funding, but residents who have waited 10 years for a respite from noise see it as just another four years of bureaucratic mishmash.

“It’s a little bit like Chinese water torture,” said Tony Lucente of the Studio City Homeowners Assn. “This has gone around and around. We’ve had an active sound wall committee for five years, and frankly, we’ve had a problem keeping people on it. The last chairperson got disgusted and quit.”

Over the years, 84 sound walls have been planned in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. By the end of last year, 42 had been completed as part of other highway improvement projects, including the widening of freeway lanes and the addition of carpool lanes. The remaining 42 projects have languished for 10 years while Caltrans funneled highway funds into other projects, such as earthquake repairs and seismic retrofit work.

Last July, when transportation officials earmarked $226 million solely for sound wall building around the state, residents rejoiced.

“With the state [tax] surpluses becoming a reality, people were excited,” Lucente said. “They had announced that these things were going up, and we kind of declared a victory.”

But Caltrans couldn’t keep pace, transportation officials said. Construction dates for some of the projects drag into 2005.

“Believe it or not, that is how long it takes to get a wall through the Caltrans process,” said Marta Maestas, project manager for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority sound walls program.

To initiate, design and fund a project can take up to four years, even before contractors are selected, said Margie Tiritilli, a Caltrans spokeswoman.

Caltrans’ reliance on its own staff for design and engineering slows the process, Maestas said.

“I am convinced we can deliver these in a more expeditious manner,” Maestas said. The MTA has hired private consultants to streamline the sound wall programs, she said.

Caltrans will begin constructing the first sound walls from the 10-year list later this year with work on the San Diego Freeway.

According to the new construction schedule, Zappin and his neighbors will have to contend with noise from speeding cars and trucks until the summer of 2004.

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Years ago, Lucente’s homeowners group unsuccessfully lobbied the city for funding to help build a sound wall along the Ventura Freeway between Moorpark Street and Tujunga Avenue. They also considered funding the wall themselves.

“The thing that was onerous was the cost that Caltrans estimated per foot. It was exorbitant,” Lucente said.

The current projected completion year for Lucente’s neighborhood is 2004.

Newer residents seem more accepting of freeway noise.

“Over a period of years . . . the people who hate [the noise] move away,” said Gerald A. Silver, president of Homeowners of Encino. “Those who replace them are insensitive to the noise and justify it by saying ‘Well, I paid less.’ ”

Zappin may be one of those. As he stood in the doorway recently, he pondered three more years without sound walls.

“Sound walls would be nice,” he said. But “I chose to live by the freeway. I’ve just gotten used to it.”