ROAD RACKET; RESIDENTS NEAR FREEWAYS WAITING FOR SOUNDWALLS.

Byline: Eric Moses Daily News Staff Writer

The Rev. Don Shockley's front door is about 20 yards from the San Diego Freeway, one of the nation's busiest commuting and trucking routes.

The roar of cars and trucks gearing up and down and banging off the uneven freeway invade Shockley's home unimpeded like an unwelcome guest dominating an otherwise pleasant conversation.

``It's devastating, especially in the summertime when you have to open up your house to get some air in. It's real loud,'' Shockley said.

For 21 years, he has been asking for a soundwall, a cement barrier to mute the traffic sounds so he and his wife can get some rest.

Eight years ago, Caltrans promised to build one but hasn't done so.

The Shockleys are not alone.

More than a dozen San Fernando Valley soundwalls that Caltrans said in 1989 should be built haven't even been funded, let alone started. Since then, the state has identified 27 others needed in the Valley; there is no timetable to build them.

Voters approved a gas tax hike in 1990, which earmarked $150 million to pay for 219 soundwalls statewide - but it has not been enough to pay for all of them. In 1994, the Northridge Earthquake hit, and whatever money remained from the tax was needed for a massive statewide freeway seismic retrofit project.

Now, legislation that would build the soundwalls by 2008 is being held up in the Legislature because of a fight between Northern and Southern California lawmakers.

``I think the San Fernando Valley is getting the shaft here, but it's also all of Southern California,'' said Sherman Oaks Realtor Jack Sammons, who claims Toluca Lake property values are hurt by the lack of soundwalls.

North vs. south

Assemblyman Scott Wildman, D-Glendale, said he and his Southern California colleagues believe Los Angeles has been ``neglected in terms of transportation funds.''

``Honestly, when the government makes promises to people it has an obligation to follow through on these promises,'' Wildman said.

But according to Wildman, the politics of the Legislature have given Northern California an unfair advantage.

Most major freeways near the Bay Area are lined with soundwalls, some not even protecting homes as the law requires, because Northern Californians for years held key posts in the Legislature, including Assembly speaker and seats on the Senate and Assembly transportation committees, he said.

``That goes clearly back to the directing of resources to Northern California instead of L.A., where they are needed,'' he said.

Indeed the chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee is Quentin Kopp, I-Daly City. And he opposes the Wildman bill, which passed the Assembly but is stalled in his committee in lieu of a compromise.

``It's L.A. County's effort to get a freebie from the rest of the state. If L.A. wants to spend money on soundwalls it has the right to do so out of its allocation of regional money,'' Kopp said.

``L.A. used this money for other purposes, which means to me they considered other purposes a higher priority. Now having done that, they have asked the rest of the state to pitch in for what they have failed to do.''

In the years since Caltrans identified the need for soundwalls, the law changed, so now the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is responsible for getting them built.

But as far as the MTA is concerned, soundwalls are not a priority.

``They are not mandated,'' said David Yale, director of capital programming. ``It will be one of a host of needs that the MTA will evaluate to determine what gets funded and what doesn't.''

Only freeways built after 1974 and those with newly built car-pool lanes are required to have soundwalls, designed to keep noise in neighborhoods below 65 decibels.

Waiting for gridlock 

For now Shockley's only hope for relief is a traffic jam - and the day when Caltrans will build the soundwall from Victory Boulevard, near his house, to Sherman Way.

He began his crusade in 1977 and has outlasted neighbors who have moved away or died. He can't move or put in central air conditioning because he can't afford to, and won't leave Aqueduct Avenue because his property taxes are so low.

Last week, a Caltrans spokeswoman said soundwall construction across from Shockley's home is expected to begin in spring 2000. An identical wall would be built next to the southbound lanes at the same time. The total construction cost is set for $6.9 million and would be paid for by the state.

Shockley said he will believe it when he no longer hears it.

``I don't trust that it will be 2000; it may be many years past that,'' Shockley said. ``I don't believe anything they tell me as far staking my life on it. It could change tomorrow.''

In Toluca Lake, construction of soundwalls to insulate residents from the Ventura Freeway may hinge on Wildman's bill.

The Toluca Lake Homeowners Association has been trying to get the barriers constructed since Caltrans promised to do so after the Ventura Freeway was built in the 1960s.

As it is for other residents, the wall is a quality-of-life issue, as well as money issue, for Toluca Lake homeowners.

Sammons, the Realtor, said that homes near the freeway sell for $400,000 to $600,000 less than those in other areas of the tony enclave.

``Now the farther you get from the freeway the higher the values go,'' Sammons said.

``Believe me, there are many people who'd like to sell, but they can't because the land values are not quite up to par with the rest of Toluca Lake,'' he added.

CAPTION(S):

Photo, map

PHOTO Van Nuys homeowner the Rev. Don Shockley has been campaigning decades for a soundwall between his street and the San Diego Freeway.

Phil McCarten/Daily News

Map: Soundwalls make good neighbors

Thirty-seven soundwalls have been proposed for the Valley, but only 12 have been planned. None have been built. These are the locations of the dozen soundwalls.