MISSING LINK FOUND IN INTERCHANGE PLAN; FREEWAY GAP COULD CREATE MORE GRIDLOCK.

Byline: Douglas Haberman Daily News Staff Writer

Caltrans is moving ahead with two lane additions to relieve traffic congestion at the 101-405 interchange despite a 1,200-foot gap between the two projects that could create a bottleneck, officials say.

The pace of the work was accelerated at the urging of Gov. Gray Davis in January, which could shave up to a year off the timetable for the two lane additions - one on the northbound 405 from Mulholland Drive to the Ventura Boulevard off-ramp at Greenleaf Street, and the other on the connector from the northbound 405 to the eastbound 101.

But Caltrans officials acknowledge they belatedly identified a 1,200-foot gap between the end of the extra lane on the northbound 405 and the start of the extra lane on the 101 connector ramp.

``Everybody realizes that for the ultimate solution, you're going to have to close that gap,'' said Caltrans spokesman Jim Drago.

Officials said the two lane additions will be a net gain for drivers even with a missing link. They said it's better to move forward with those two projects than wait a year or longer to go through a cumbersome planning and approval process and find funding to bridge the gap.

Caltrans and project proponents say the gap will create a bottleneck.

As long as there's a 1,200-foot missing link, motorists will come to the end of the extra lane on the 405 northbound and be forced to merge into the lane to the immediate left before they can get on the connector ramp to the eastbound 101.

But incremental projects like the two lane additions, which cost $13.1 million, can help ease traffic congestion without waiting the additional time that would be required to plan and build the $12 million missing link, Drago said.

``It's our position that the projects really stand alone,'' he said.

In a series of stories beginning in 1997, the Daily News has focused attention on the 101-405 interchange as ground zero for gridlock in the San Fernando Valley. Designed decades ago to handle only a fraction of the traffic that crowds it each day, the 101-405 interchange is one of the most heavily traveled locations in the state highway system.

Since then, local leaders have been calling for interim improvements as quickly as possible.

Assemblyman Wally Knox, D-Los Angeles, whose district includes the interchange, said recently that his jaw dropped when he learned in January that there might be a gap. Once he verified there was a missing link and understood the problem fully, he sent a letter to Davis in April asking for his administration to fund the gap closure, which he said preliminarily was estimated to cost $12 million.

Knox suggested that the money be found in a $267 million statewide transportation fund called the Interregional Transportation Improvement Program.

Drago said a gap-closing project is neither simple nor likely to be cheap, because traffic is going in so many different directions along that stretch. ``If it was easy, someone would've probably done it by now,'' he said.

Caltrans must determine the best options for closing the gap and their respective price tags, Drago said. And because any option will affect traffic on Ventura Boulevard and the surrounding neighborhood, a detailed environmental impact study also will be necessary, he said.

Such a study takes at least a year because it involves analyzing the project's likely impacts and what would have to be done to offset them, Drago said.

``You couldn't design it unless you take into account what happens on Ventura Boulevard'' as a result of the construction and use of the additional lane, he said. The environmental analysis also would have to examine how the extra lane would expand capacity at the interchange, which will affect air quality, he said.

He said it makes sense to move forward with the other two improvement projects rather than delaying them until a gap-closure project is ready to roll.

Nate Brogin, a San Fernando Valley civic leader who sits on the Planning and Transportation Committee of the Southern California Association of Governments, said the best solution might involve a bridge at the Greenleaf Street on-ramp ``so that the on-bound traffic is not competing'' with the traffic already on the freeway.

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Map: 101 - 405 missing link

A 1,200-foot gap separates two projects to reduce congestion at the interchange of the 101 and 405 freeways in Sherman Oaks.The two projects, at a cost of about $13 million, are on a fast track to approval. But filling the gap will cost $12 million more, according to state estimates.

Source: Caltrans; Daily News Research