STATE BUDGET PROBLEMS MAY KEEP NORTH VALLEY TRAFFIC OUT OF SYNC.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

The state budget crisis could wipe out a chance for the Northwest San Fernando Valley to have street signals fine-tuned to match traffic flow - technology that most of Los Angeles has enjoyed since the 1984 Summer Olympics.

The 66 traffic lights in the area bound by Topanga Canyon and Balboa boulevards and Devonshire and Rinaldi streets are among the last in Los Angeles to get plugged into the computerized signal-synchronization system that increases street speeds by as much as 15 percent. Eagle Rock and San Pedro also are at the end of the line.

But the $6.8 million project - the final leg of a four-part, $16 million allocation - is in jeopardy as Gov. Gray Davis tries to eliminate a $35 billion state budget shortfall.

``If we lose any piece of this, we lose mobility,'' said David Grannis, who heads up the transportation committee for the Valley Industry and Commerce Association.

``Linking this system together is a huge mobility improvement for the Valley. Losing any piece is not acceptable.''

City officials say they're working to get as much done as possible by June 30, the end of the fiscal year, before money is expected to dry up.

The city's Department of Transportation has made progress in finishing the Victory, Ventura and Sepulveda Boulevard corridors in 2003 - three years ahead of schedule.

But the final leg - the Ronald Reagan Freeway corridor - lags behind the others because it lacks the basic technology needed to upgrade the system.

Assemblyman Keith Richman, R-Granada Hills, has been scrambling to salvage local projects as the governor looks to make $1.8 billion in transportation cuts. But Richman couldn't promise the North Valley signal project will rise to priority status among the many other projects.

``All of this is being looked at in the context of a state budget deficit of between $24 billion and $36 billion,'' said Richman, noting that he hasn't been asked to push for this project. ``It is very difficult to determine what other projects may or may not be undertaken at this time.''

State transportation officials have made it clear that local agencies need to set priorities and lobby for the projects they consider most important as the proposed cuts are made.

Representatives of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, for example, are lobbying Sacramento daily as they fights for funding for MTA projects.

And Mayor James Hahn's office, which is responsible for trying to keep the city's projects going, has been promoting the Valley work to state transportation officials and lawmakers.

``We sort of put on a full-court press,'' said Deputy Mayor Brian Williams, adding more meetings are planned.

``It is a priority for us,'' he said, calling it one of those ``projects where it doesn't take a whole lot of money, ... but it can make a discernible difference in the traffic flow.''

The computerized signal technology was installed downtown during the '84 Olympics. City engineers spent the next 20 years expanding the grid across the city's 4,000 intersections, but the North Valley - along with other Valley areas, San Pedro and Eagle Rock - is still waiting to get hooked up.

In other parts of the Valley, meanwhile, the city has been upgrading the Olympics-era automated traffic surveillance and control system, called ATSAC, to the new adapted traffic control system, called ATCS. In October, Victory Boulevard got ATCS, which uses computer technology to extend the time on red or green lights, based on traffic conditions at the moment.

The Ventura Boulevard upgrade is under way and likely to be finished this summer, and bids are expected to be opened this week on the Sepulveda Boulevard corridor. While the funding is not secure for the Sepulveda project, officials are confident the money will be forthcoming because the project is so far along.

While the old system allowed some 60 variables for programming intersections - compared to just morning, midday or evening programs - the new ATCS reacts to actual traffic flow on city streets.

For example, if motorists detour to Victory Boulevard because traffic backs up on the 101 Freeway, ground sensors will detect the heavier-than- normal flow and lengthen green lights on Victory to move the cars along.

``In the ideal world, what you have is what you and everyone else wants: All (you) get is green lights, and the world is wonderful,'' said city transportation engineer Glenn Ogura, who's managing the Valley project. ``You'll hit you every signal, and you'll get all the green lights and think what a wonderful city (you) live in.''

That sounds pretty good to North Hills resident Darren Hubert, who crisscrosses the boulevards as a real estate agent.

He complains that north-south streets are the worst - De Soto, Balboa and Reseda - and said city officials should concentrate on fixing those rather than completing the whole project during the budget crisis.

``During rush hour, it can take 15 minutes to travel one mile on those streets,'' said Hubert, interim chairman of the North Hills West Neighborhood Council.

The Valley's synchronization project is as far along as it is through the efforts of the Valley Transportation Strike Force.

Once the governor's $6 billion congestion relief program was unveiled in 2000 - the biggest state transit expenditure in a generation, thanks to a budget surplus in the 1990s - the Valley leaders organized to ensure their money got put to work.

The strike force persuaded Caltrans to provide extra staff and expedited the timetable to push the completion date forward by three years.

``We told everybody this is general fund money; it could go away,'' said Valley Industry and Commerce Association official Grannis. ``Can you imagine where we'd be if we didn't push? They'd have nothing.''

Those involved always knew the North Valley project would be the most difficult and had given it until April 2004 to get finished.

Because the North Valley never got the original system, crews now need to dig trenches to lay cable under the roadway. By comparison, the Ventura, Victory and Sepulveda projects involve laying loop detectors under the asphalt at intersections - a much simpler project.

Ogura, the city traffic engineer, said his group plans to finish the design work on the North Valley project by summer, even though the funding is uncertain.

He noted that, despite all the efforts, the improvements may not be noticed by drivers. While the original light-synchronization project boosted speeds by 15 percent, the ATCS can merely keep congestion from getting worse as the growing population adds more cars to city streets.

``We're not always trying to make it significantly better. What we're trying to do is at least provide the capacity so it doesn't get any worse,'' he said.

``This was a wonderful opportunity, and we really want to be able to do it. If we were to lose that, it would be a shame.''

CAPTION(S):

photo, map

Photo:

State budget cuts may end efforts to synchronize traffic signals near the Ronald Reagan Freeway and Balboa Boulevard.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer

Map:

SYNCHRONIZED TRAFFIC LIGHTS

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