HIGHWAY WORK SLOWS TRAVEL TWO PROJECTS WILL EASE 101 FREEWAY CONGESTION.Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer Two major improvement projects along the 101 Freeway in Ventura County have snarled snarl 1 v. snarled, snarl·ing, snarls v.intr. 1. To growl viciously while baring the teeth. 2. To speak angrily or threateningly. v.tr. traffic for motorists heading north on holiday getaways, but they promise better commutes once construction is complete, officials said. In Camarillo, the $34 million Lewis Road interchange improvements should ease the crush at the popular outlet mall An outlet mall (or outlet centre) is a type of shopping mall, in which manufacturers sell their products directly to the public through their own branded stores. Clothing, sporting goods, electrical products, cosmetics, and toys are among the types of items sold at outlet , while a $100 million project between Oxnard and Ventura promises to smooth the notorious bottleneck with Highway 1. Camarillo Mayor Don Waunch knows traffic can be a bear - merchants in his city's Old Town area have lived through a year of construction that's hurt business - but it's ``short-term pain for long-term gain Long-term gain A profit on the sale of a capital assets held longer than 12 months, and eligible for long-term capital gains tax treatment. .'' ``All of these projects are designed to assist not only the local transportation, but also will improve access to commercial and retail areas,'' he said. ``It's a win-win.'' The projects have been in the transportation planning Transportation planning is the field involved with the siting of transportation facilities (generally streets, highways, sidewalks, bike lanes and public transport lines). pipeline for years, and are finally taking shape along the Ventura Freeway The Ventura Freeway is a freeway in southern California running from Ventura to Pasadena. It is the principal east-west route through Ventura County and in the southern San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County. after construction started more than a year ago. The new Lewis Road interchange will provide a direct connection to California State University, Channel Islands California State University, Channel Islands (CSUCI) is a university located in Camarillo, California, in California's Ventura County. CSUCI opened in 2002 as the twenty-third campus in the California State University system, succeeding the Ventura County branch campus of , and points west, so drivers can avoid city streets, while a widened new Arneill Bridge - being spruced up with an additional $200,000 from the city - will welcome visitors to the city's redeveloped Old Town. That new interchange should also ease traffic at Las Posas Road and Carmen Carmen throws over lover for another. [Fr. Lit.: Carmen; Fr. Opera: Bizet, Carmen, Westerman, 189–190] See : Faithlessness Carmen the cards repeatedly spell her death. [Fr. Drive - the two main roads to the popular Camarillo Premium Outlets. Farther north, the two-mile project between Oxnard and Ventura will create a new, diamond interchange A diamond interchange is a common type of road junction. Diamond interchanges are used where a freeway crosses a minor road. The freeway itself will be grade-separated from the minor road, a bridge being provided for one or the other. with Highway 1 and will replace the Santa Clara River Santa Clara River may refer to:
``This will give us two areas of the freeway that are functioning really well, however we still have major problems on the corridor,'' said Ginger Gherardi, executive director of the Ventura County Transportation Commission. Ventura County, like others up and down the state, has seen its transportation funds put on hold with the state budget crisis, and the region is now considering a local sales tax sales tax, levy on the sale of goods or services, generally calculated as a percentage of the selling price, and sometimes called a purchase tax. It is usually collected in the form of an extra charge by the retailer, who remits the tax to the government. to help fund transportation work. Among the projects shelved are long-term plans to widen the 101 Freeway across the county from Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County to Santa Barbara Santa Barbara (săn'tə bär`brə, –bərə), city (1990 pop. 85,571), seat of Santa Barbara co., S Calif., on the Pacific Ocean; inc. 1850. County, as well as plans to widen the 118 Freeway across Simi Valley Simi Valley (sē`mē, sĭm`ē), city (1990 pop. 100,217), Ventura co., SW Calif. in an oil, fruit, and farm region; laid out 1887, inc. 1969. and widen Lewis Road out to the university. Officials remain hopeful that one project at the top of the list - bringing another lane to the 23 Freeway between Moorpark and Thousand Oaks Thousand Oaks, residential city (1990 pop. 104,352), Ventura co., S Calif., in a farm area; inc. 1964. Avocados, citrus, vegetables, strawberries, and nursery products are grown. and continuing it down the 101 to Los Angeles County - could still get funded. Some of those projects had been ready to go out for construction bids this fall, after years in the transportation planning process, only to be halted as the state stopped funding new transportation projects. ``The only thing that's pretty clear is people are going to be in a lot of stop-and-go-traffic in this county for a long time before any of these roads are fixed,'' Gherardi said. ``It's possible that the state situation will improve in a few years,'' she said. ``Right now, it's pretty bleak.'' The 101 has long been a main route for those heading out of Southern California to Santa Barbara or points north. As the six-county Southern California region that includes Ventura County is expected to grow by 6 million people by 2030, Ventura County planners are bracing for the onslaught of cars. The county is polling residents to see whether they would be willing to pay a half-cent sales tax to raise $50 million annually for transportation countywide. Results are due next month before transportation commissioners decide whether to pursue a tax proposal on the November ballot. ``Clearly there are some significant needs in the county,'' Gherardi said. ``Those needs are only going to get more and more pressing as time goes on if they don't get addressed.'' The Lewis Road work is expected to be done in spring 2005 while the larger project in Oxnard and Ventura will extend until summer 2007, a Caltrans spokeswoman said. ``(Ventura County is) an important area of the region, both economically and in terms of growth, and we think these projects are really going to improve transportation in that area,'' said Department of Transportation spokeswoman Judy Gish. Waunch, the Camarillo mayor, said he'll be interested in the results of the transportation commission's polling on the tax issue, but said his city has been storing money away for its next transportation project - a new set of ramps on the 101, midway between Carmen Drive and Las Posas Road, where there currently are none. ``In Camarillo, we're doing our own thing anyway,'' he said. ``People are going to (access the area) somehow; we're going to provide the roads for them.'' Lisa Mascaro, (818) 713-3761 lisa.mascaro(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo, 2 maps Photo: Vehicles on the northbound 101 Freeway on Thursday pass by the new lanes under construction near the Lewis Road off-ramp - one of two major freeway projects in the county. Tina Burch/Staff Photographer Map: (1) OXNARD - Connector to Highway 1 (2) CAMARILLO - Lewis Road interchange improvement |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion