$4.5-Million Study Will Seek Ways to Cut Gridlock on the 101 Freeway

A new study of the 101 Freeway hailed as the most comprehensive analysis ever of this nightmare of a commuting artery is underway, a consortium of government agencies announced Wednesday.

The $4.5-million, three-year effort seeks to reduce congestion and improve safety along the 40-mile stretch from downtown Los Angeles through Hollywood, crossing the San Fernando Valley to Thousand Oaks.

Organizers will seek public input through three community meetings this month. But the study already is being greeted with skepticism by commuters who have grown weary of studies done on everything from interchange improvements to double-decking the freeway to building a trolley line along the median.

“Not only do studies come and go, not only has there been no action, the problems [on the 101] are getting worse and worse,” said Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. “When will the studies end and the constructions begin?”

Supporters said the new study will be different and may lead to change.

One of the busiest corridors in California, the 101--also known as the Ventura Freeway along one stretch and the Hollywood Freeway along another--is often gridlocked in both directions during peak commuting hours. The freeway channels traffic to and from downtown, Burbank movie studios, the Van Nuys government complex and Warner Center in Woodland Hills.

The 101 is home to two of California’s three busiest interchanges, where it grinds across the Harbor Freeway downtown and the San Diego Freeway in Sherman Oaks, said Tom Choe, chief of freeway operations for Caltrans. Only the interchange between the Harbor and Santa Monica freeways near downtown has more traffic.

The study “is not going to be just another study,” said state Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), who helped secure much of its funding when she was in the Assembly. Unlike previous analyses, this one will seek public input, examine the entire corridor rather than bits and pieces of it and identify short-term as well as long-term solutions, Kuehl said. Another goal is to identify funding sources.

The study is being conducted by Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc., an engineering consulting firm headquartered in New York with offices throughout California. It is being funded with $3 million from Gov. Gray Davis’ Traffic Congestion Relief Program and additional money from Caltrans, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Las Virgenes-Malibu Council of Governments and the Southern California Assn. of Governments.

Community meetings will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on Jan. 22 at Encino Tarzana Medical Center, 16237 Ventura Blvd., Encino; on Jan. 23 at Calabasas Community Center, 27040 Malibu Hills Road, Calabasas; and on Jan. 24 at Los Angeles City College, 855 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles. Additional information is available on the Web at https://www.communityspeakup.com/101 or can be obtained by calling (866) 668-3101.