70 CHEAP FIXES FOR 101 CITIZENS ADVISORY GROUP PROPOSALS FACE CASH-STRAPPED GOVERNMENT.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

Nearly a year after community opposition squashed a plan to widen the 101 Freeway, a citizens advisory panel has identified 70 little fixes that officials say could help relieve gridlock - cheaply and quickly, even in tough economic times.

The ``doable'' proposals come from a list of more than 200 suggestions that were made by the 101 Task Force. Instead of major overhauls, they are focused on minor improvements the state would make to the freeway and the city to surrounding surface streets.

The city's share of fixes - such as left-turn arrows onto entrance ramps and better synchronized signals to prevent backups - could be completed for an estimated $7 million.

But with Los Angeles facing a $300 million deficit in its $5.1 billion budget for fiscal 2004, city leaders say it's unlikely they can scrape up the money to do the work.

``I'd love to make a statement to say I'm going to get money this year,'' said City Councilman Tom LaBonge, whose office headed up the six-month study following last year's failed 101 widening plan.

``We've got to look and see where every dollar is. I think there's a great opportunity to review every commitment we have to find some resources to do some of the key intersections.''

Encino activist Gerald Silver, a vocal opponent of the freeway expansion plan, urged council members who represent areas along the 101 to pool their interests and fight for the money.

``These are small-ticket items that, I think, have big improvement benefits,'' said Silver, president of Homeowners of Encino. ``I think the city, even in a era of tight budgets, needs to give serious consideration of these items.

``It's going to be very hard for the city to say it has no money when, one, you have universal agreement on what needs to be done, and secondly when these are big payoff for little investment.''

Residents have embraced the 101 Task Force, saying city leaders fostered much goodwill by asking residents for suggestions after Caltrans' $3.4 billion plan to widen the 101 from Thousand Oaks to downtown collapsed under the weight of community opposition.

For the past six months, the advisory committee has been studying the freeway corridor and focusing on short- and midterm projects. They've worked on hotspots that commuters know well - like intersections that stack up with cars trying to get on the freeway or off-ramps that back up with cars trying to exit.

Some of the suggestions are daunting - like building missing connectors along the 101-134 Freeway corridor or adding an auxiliary lane on the 101 through the West Valley.

And some that sound simple, like adding one of the missing on-ramps at Canoga Avenue, would still take up to 10 years to get done and cost more than $10 million, according to the report.

But others are the bread-and-butter type fixes that city engineers say they could do within a year and with relatively smaller investments. For example, it would cost about $10,000 to add arrows to a traffic signal or $50,000 to create right-only turn lanes on surface streets.

While city engineers haven't fully examined the suggestions with the kind of detail that would be needed before giving final approval, those who have long studied the corridor believe they could help improve traffic.

``Generally, they have promise. But since I've not investigated them, I can't say for sure. But overall it's justified to carefully investigate these requests,'' said transportation engineer Haripal S. Vir.

``The good thing is ... it's coming from a citizens advisory group. That differentiates them from the routine requests we get on a daily basis.''

City engineers say many of the Caltrans improvements - like better freeway signs residents want - could also be done quickly and without large investments.

Caltrans is not yet ready to commit to any of the projects, saying it's studying the suggestions to come up with a list of viable projects by summer.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which has also been part of the committee, also said it wasn't yet ready to commit to specific projects.

City Transportation Department Assistant General Manager James Okazaki said his department wouldn't be able to get the work done without a new funding source.

Already the department has projects on hold because of state budget cuts to transportation and is without about half its construction personnel because of the city's hiring freeze, he said.

Without funding and a push to prioritize them at the top of the department's list of priorities, they would need to get in line with all the other projects citywide.

``If there's special funding just for these projects, we could employ (people) and get it built,'' Okazaki said. ``Absent that, these locations that have been identified will go into the hopper.''

One possible funding source, the MTA's biannual Call for Projects - a chance for cities to get money for transportation projects - has been halted for 2004 because of the state budget crisis.

Silver, among those residents who opposed the 101 widening plan - as well as a new effort to revive that plan by the Southern California Association of Governments - said the city should try to take the small steps it can now.

``If we don't make significant improvements now, the dragon will raise it's head when SCAG decides it wants to do some real draconian solutions. It's a question of finding the money for first things first.''

Lisa Mascaro, [phone]

lisa.mascaro(at)dailynews.com

IF YOU GO

The 101 Corridor Task Force will meet at 6 p.m. today at the Marvin Braude Constituent Service Center, 6262 Van Nuys Blvd., Van Nuys

CAPTION(S):

2 boxes, map

Box:

(1) IF YOU GO (see text)

(2) EASING CONGESTION ON 101 FREEWAY

SOURCE: 101 Freeway Corridor Citizens Advisory Committee

Map:

EASING CONGESTION ON 101 FREEWAY