COMMUTERS SHED LIGHT ON INTERCHANGE.

Byline: Jesse Hiestand Daily News Staff Writer

State transportation officials grappling with congestion at the 405-101 freeway interchange solicited advice from a select group of experts Monday - the motorists who must drive at a snail's pace through the interchange each day.

About 25 San Fernando Valley-area residents gathered at the Encino Community Center to air their gripes and pitch their solutions to officials from Caltrans and the city of Los Angeles.

``I've been driving this damned route for 30 years to Culver City and it's getting worse. Public transportation would be a great idea,'' said Sandy Donner, a Sherman Oaks resident who advocated a monorail through the Sepulveda Pass.

Encino resident Cher Huber said she supported one of Caltrans' proposed solutions - closing the 101 off-ramp on Haskell Street, where she lives.

``It has become an extension of the freeway,'' she said. ``People get off at Haskell and cut across to the 405 at freeway speeds. It's absolutely outrageous.''

The state officials said they've already launched efforts to relieve gridlock at the 101 and 405 interchange, but the goal of free-flowing traffic there may never be met.

Crews are busy adding an auxiliary lane to the westbound 101, between Van Nuys Boulevard and Hayvenhurst Avenue, said Caltrans district director Tony Harris. And construction should begin by early next year to extend a car-pool lane on the southbound 405 that ends near the interchange, forcing traffic to abruptly merge.

But these improvements, and two other freeway widening plans under consideration, will not end the traffic nightmare at the state's fourth-busiest interchange, which carries about 536,500 vehicles daily.

``None of these are going to be magic bullets,'' Harris said. ``There will be some improvements in the area, but I don't think it will solve the problem.''

Harris discussed these improvements, and two others under consideration, at the community meeting convened by Assemblyman Wally Knox, D-Los Angeles, who represents Encino, Sherman Oaks and Studio City.

In addition to Caltrans, the meeting Monday night included officials from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the city of Los Angeles.

Harris said the solution to 101-405 gridlock may lie not at the interchange but on ``mainline'' sections of those freeways.

But simply adding new lanes to one congested area, the 101 freeway westbound from the interchange, for example, would likely be prohibited by clean air regulations, he said. At best, planners may be able to convince the state to add another car-pool lane because it is intended to help curb pollution, he said.

``You can make a lot of modifications to the interchange itself, but somewhere down the line we have to deal with the capacity of the mainline 101 freeway itself,'' Harris said.