101-405 PROJECT BEGINS WORKERS TAKE FIRST STEPS TO EASE INTERCHANGE CONGESTION.

Byline: Steve Carney Staff Writer

SHERMAN OAKS - After decades of growing congestion and thousands of hours lost to gridlock at the 101-405 freeway interchange, the first step in a $16 million traffic improvement project began Saturday.

Caltrans workers started taking soil samples along the 405 Freeway from Mulholland Drive north to the 101 Freeway, to add a lane and help ease traffic leading to the troubled junction - the third-busiest in the state.

Later, a companion job will add a connector lane from the north 405 to the east 101 Freeway.

The $16 million pair of projects comes after a 1997 Daily News series outlined how the interchange had become the epicenter of traffic gridlock in the San Fernando Valley, and suggested possible solutions, such as adding lanes.

``It's very maddening to sit on a freeway not moving - all because of an interchange that was designed 40 years ago and was never redeveloped to meet current traffic conditions,'' said Richard H. Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association.

Caltrans estimates 530,000 cars crawl through the crossing every day, and a recent study labeled it the seventh-worst bottleneck in the nation. The area is congested for up to five hours during the evening rush hour, Caltrans says.

Among those who say the work is overdue is Jess Reynolds, a retired Caltrans engineer who helped design the junction in the 1950s.

``The interchange is carrying several times the traffic it was designed for,'' said Reynolds. ``Nobody ever expected the population explosion we've had. It was 45 years ago when we designed that.''

It's unclear whether the work now planned will significantly ease gridlock, but officials and residents alike said it is a step.

The auxiliary lane will run north from Mulholland Drive to the Ventura Boulevard off-ramp at Greenleaf Street. Actual construction on the extra 405 Freeway lane isn't scheduled to begin until spring 2001, and will be finished by the end of 2002.

Crews were expected to take soil samples today and Monday, work that will help in the design of sound walls planned for the auxiliary lane, said Caltrans spokeswoman Margie Tiritilli.

The freeway's far-right northbound lane is scheduled to be closed in that area during between 3 and 5 p.m., as will the Skirball Center/Mulholland Drive on-ramp to the north 405. But Caltrans engineers will stop the project if severe traffic builds up as a result, Tiritilli said.

The companion project, to add a second connector lane from the northbound 405 to the eastbound 101 Freeway, will begin construction in fall 2001 and be done by spring 2003.

Even when the auxiliary lane and the extra connector are completed, a 1,200-foot gap will remain between the two. Some officials worry that the gap will create even more traffic problems than the two additions will solve, as motorists heading north reaching the end of the auxiliary lane will have to merge into the lane to their left before they can get to the connector leading to the eastbound 101.

Assemblyman Wally Knox, D-Los Angeles, a longtime advocate of improvements to the interchange, said he's confident that with the growing support for solving gridlock at the junction, the necessary political clout and the estimated $12 million to build the missing link are close at hand.

``Unraveling the problems at the 101-405 will be challenging,'' Knox said, ``but it will be entirely worth the effort.''

The $16 million worth of projects already in the works are relatively small in the world of transportation construction jobs, which can cost hundreds of millions - but they're a start, Knox said.

``They're projects that had to be done to solve the 101-405 mess,'' he said. ``They're a necessary part of the solution, but by themselves they are only going to give us a little bit of relief.''

Knox said he hopes momentum is building among the public, transportation officials and state, local and federal legislators to push for long-term solutions to the gridlock problem at the interchange.

``I'm very optimistic,'' Knox said. ``Everyone I've spoken to, from the governor on down, recognized the San Fernando Valley is demanding progress.''

In 1998, the federal Department of Transportation granted $500,000 to help study long-term solutions to the problem. And last week U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Woodland Hills, asked Congress for an additional $1.5 million to study yet more long-range alternatives.

``That intersection has been terrible. It deserves to be at the top of everybody's agenda,'' Sherman said. And with lawmakers at every level searching for solutions, ``everybody's looking for a way to get involved in this.''

``At least the congestion of different government agencies trying to do something is almost matching the congestion at the interchange,'' he said. ``It's a good thing, but it would have been better if it started five years ago.''

Sherman said a $1 billion project to tear apart the interchange and start from scratch just wouldn't be feasible, so lawmakers and transportation officials have to improve the interchange piece by piece.

``It's not uncoordinated, but it is messy and complicated,'' Sherman said.

And the need for improvements is clear - as the Valley has grown, the interchange has placed a stranglehold on its quality of life and commerce.

``We cannot maintain or increase the residential nature of the Valley, or improve business in the Valley, unless this vital interchange is expanded,'' Close said. ``I know of many cases in which business people don't want to come to the Valley because it just takes so long.''

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Map: Releasing the chokehold