101-405 RELIEF COMING `MISSING LINK' FIX PLANNED.Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer Caltrans will announce plans today for a $43 million project at the 101-405 interchange that promises to reduce congestion The condition of a network when there is not enough bandwidth to support the current traffic load. congestion - When the offered load of a data communication path exceeds the capacity. and improve safety at the nation's worst freeway juncture. The long-awaited project will create a smooth transition for motorists entering the northbound San Diego Freeway The San Diego Freeway (Interstate 405, and the part of Interstate 5 south of the El Toro Y[1]) is one of the principal north-south highways in Southern California, and the major beltway of I-5 running through Southern California. at Greenleaf Street - the ``missing link'' in a series of improvements designed to reduce bottlenecks at the interchange traveled by more than a half-million motorists daily. ``I compliment them for going ahead with this,'' said Bruce Ackerman Bruce Arnold Ackerman (born August 19, 1943) is a famous constitutional law scholar in the United States. He is a Sterling Professor at Yale Law School and one of the most frequently cited legal academics in the country. Biography Ackerman received his B. , president and chief executive officer of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. , who travels the route on his daily commute. ``It's one of the highest priorities in the state of California. It really makes sense. That's what we've been crying about for the last 10 years.'' The state Department of Transportation, which declined to comment for this story, has been slowly upgrading the 101-405 since 1997, when the Daily News published a series of articles about problems and outlined possible solutions. The project being announced today will provide easier access for motorists accessing the northbound San Diego Freeway at Greenleaf as well as northbound motorists trying to get to the 101 and into the Valley. Currently, the Greenleaf motorists enter from an on-ramp on the right side of the freeway, then have to scoot scoot v. scoot·ed, scoot·ing, scoots v.intr. To go suddenly and speedily; hurry. v.tr. Upper Southern U.S. across two lanes to get to the northbound 405 and avoid detouring onto the 101. The crunch is compounded by motorists coming down the hill from Mulholland Drive For the motion picture, see . Mulholland Drive is a very well-known road in Los Angeles, California named after engineer William Mulholland. A portion of it is also called Mulholland Highway. who are forced to brake for slow, lane-changing motorists. The new project will create an underpass so motorists entering at Greenleaf will enter on the northbound 405 while avoiding traffic exiting to the 101. ``We believe that it's going to improve safety and add capacity to that interchange,'' said James Okazaki, assistant general manager for the city's Department of Transportation, which helped design the project. ``It's really going to eliminate the merging problem and the accident problem.'' The project also will permanently close a small loop-around on-ramp that's situated on Ventura Boulevard Ventura Boulevard is one of the primary east-west thouroughfares in the San Fernando Valley; as it was originally a part of the El Camino Real (the trail between Spanish missions), Ventura Boulevard is the oldest route in the San Fernando Valley. It was also U.S. just west of Sepulveda Boulevard. Instead, Caltrans will extend Dickens Street to Ventura Boulevard, giving eastbound east·bound adj. Going toward the east. eastbound Adjective going towards the east Adj. 1. boulevard travelers a shortcut (1) In Windows, a shortcut is an icon that points to a program or data file. Shortcuts can be placed on the desktop or stored in other folders, and double clicking a shortcut is the same as double clicking the original file. to the Greenleaf on-ramp - one that will bypass the crowded intersection of Sepulveda and Ventura boulevards. ``It shortens the trip and minimizes the congestion,'' Okazaki said. ``We think the bypass is going to be great.'' Plans also call for adding a lane to the stretch of Sepulveda Boulevard between Ventura and Greenleaf, eliminating on-street parking and building a parking lot for retail stores. Two years ago, Caltrans built an extra lane on northbound 405 between Mulholland Drive and the 101. It also widened the connector between the northbound 405 to the eastbound 101 to two lanes. The phase being unveiled today has been the trickiest, but engineers say it will also prove to be a vital component of the improvements. ``This is the missing link,'' said Okazaki. Other projects remain on the horizon but are not yet funded, including improvements from the southbound 405 to the 101 in each direction. Additionally, there are plans to extend the car-pool lanes - which have brought relief to southbound commuters - along the entire 405. ``This is an incremental Additional or increased growth, bulk, quantity, number, or value; enlarged. Incremental cost is additional or increased cost of an item or service apart from its actual cost. piece of a larger group of projects and every piece that we get started and completed helps overall,'' said Kevin Michel, head of San Fernando Valley area planning for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The MTA (1) (Message Transfer Agent or Mail Transfer Agent) The store and forward part of a messaging system. See messaging system. (2) See M Technology Association. 1. (messaging) MTA - Message Transfer Agent. was instrumental in pushing through this phase of the 101-405 improvements, taking out loans after the state budget crisis all but shut down construction funding. Michel cautioned that fixing freeways is only one piece of solving Los Angeles' traffic woes, and that new car-pool lanes and mass transit mass transit, public transportation systems designed to move large numbers of passengers. Types and Advantages Mass transit refers to municipal or regional public shared transportation, such as buses, streetcars, and ferries, open to all on a lines such as the Orange Line are also needed. ``There's going to be a whole lot of things that need to happen, but when you start putting all these pieces together, it's going to add up to something meaningful.'' Lisa Mascaro, (818) 713-3761 lisa.mascaro(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): map Map: 101-405 RELIEF SOURCE: Caltrans Daily News |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion