Caltrans

Commuters traveling to and from the San Fernando Valley should prepare for a series of freeway closures starting Sunday. A $140-million California Department of Transportation project intended to allow smooth freeway-to-freeway transitions on carpool lanes and improve congestion on the Interstate 5 (I-5) will close off lanes on the freeway from Oct. 2-7. Planned closures, subject to change, include: -Maximum two lanes on the northbound I-5 between the 170 freeway and Paxton Street from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. -Maximum two lanes of the southbound I-5 between the 170 and 118 freeways, from 9 p.m. to 11:59 p.m. and from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. -Maximum three lanes of the southbound I-5 between the 170 and 118 freeways, from 11:59 p.m. to 4 a.m. -The southbound I-5 Van Nuys Boulevard on-ramp from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The project will also close off the Sheldon Street and Osborne Street on and off-ramps, and the Van Nuys Boulevard off-ramp, until January 2012.

This week I sent a formal request demanding that the California Department of Transportation end all efforts to further the 710 Freeway extension. Since my days as La Cañada Flintridge mayor and councilman, I have been given false and misleading information from tunnel proponents bent on building the 710 tunnel at all costs. The public's trust is too high a price to pay for any project. Last week I received the results for an audit of Caltrans that I had requested last year. I was outraged to learn that Caltrans has been spending millions of dollars every year without any clear scope of work or accountability.

Two dozen Glendale residents ripped into state transportation officials Thursday during a community meeting on the widening of the Golden State (5) Freeway, saying they failed to provide even basic information on the project. The residents, many of them homeowners near the Interstate 5 at Western Avenue, said the California Department of Transportation did not give notice on key construction dates or consult with neighbors on the removal of dozens of mature trees. Jim Grumbley, who lives in the 1400 block of Lake Street, said a neighbor had alerted him to the work.

In a standoff with federal forest officials, Caltrans is proposing to abandon a popular, cliff-hanging highway in the San Gabriel Mountains because it is too expensive to maintain. Caltrans' proposal to walk away from California Highway 39, enjoyed by an estimated 3 million people a year, comes as the state struggles to close a $9.2-billion budget shortfall. To avoid closure, Caltrans is trying to persuade the U.S. Forest Service or Los Angeles County to take over the roadway, which runs 27 miles from the city of Azusa nearly to the crest of the San Gabriels.

Alameda Avenue is scheduled to be closed this coming weekend between Olive and Pass avenues as part of a state construction project, officials have announced. Crews working on the Hollywood Way On-ramp Improvement Project will close the section of Alameda Avenue from 8 p.m. Friday to 5 p.m. Saturday, according to the California Department of Transportation. Detour signs will divert traffic to Riverside Drive. Caltrans crews are scheduled to grind the surface layer of the street during the project.

State transportation officials today said they will close Western Avenue under the Golden State Freeway (I-5) in Glendale from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Monday through Thursday as part of a realignment of the interchange that is expected to be completed next summer. The California Department of Transportation, in announcing the closure today, said the majority of the work would be performed at night to minimize traffic impacts, although the construction schedule was subject to change. Detour signs will be posted.

Pressure is mounting on the California Department of Transportation to sell the 460 properties it owns on the Long Beach (710) Freeway corridor, but officials say it could be years before any decision is made. For decades, Caltrans has owned hundreds of homes in Pasadena, South Pasadena and El Sereno. The agency acquired the homes in the 1950s, '60s and '70s to accommodate plans to extend the 710 Freeway from Alhambra to the Foothill (210) Freeway in Pasadena. The project has stalled amid lawsuits, funding problems and political controversy, and now it appears regional transportation officials favor digging a 4.5-mile tunnel to connect the 210 and the 710. As a result, calls for Caltrans to sell the homes are growing louder.

State and local officials on Monday broke ground on a $140.2-million project to add carpool lanes to a congested portion of the Golden State (5) Freeway. Nearly 10 miles from the Interstate 5 Burbank Boulevard offramp and 13 from the Colorado Street exit in Glendale — both named in a recent report as freeway segments where traffic conditions worsened significantly last year — the project will build high-occupancy vehicle lanes in each direction between the Hollywood (170)

Auditors got an earful last week regarding the nearly 400 homes that the state purchased decades ago for a possible surface extension of the Long Beach (710) Freeway. In that time, the California Department of Transportation, which owns the homes, has been accused of being a poor landlord, and a groundswell is growing to force the agency to sell the properties, especially since extending the 710 Freeway to connect with the Foothill (210) Freeway will now likely involve an underground tunnel.

Living a few blocks from the 210 Freeway in La Crescenta, I keep my windows closed day and night because of the noise from trucks shifting gears and using exhaust brakes as they ascend or descend the grade near Lowell Avenue and La Tuna Canyon. Residents living farther away say they can hear them too. Caltrans promised sound walls to be built in 2012, but no sign of them yet. This affects the home prices in the area. Dorothy Sundbye La Crescenta

The California Department of Transportation  plans to  close the following lanes, ramps  and connectors of the Golden State Freeway (5) and the Ventura (SR-134) freeways through March 16 as part of a $57.8 million improvement project to construct carpool  lanes in each direction along the I-5 between SR-134 and Magnolia Boulevard. Closures are subject to change. Two off-ramps are undergoing long-term closures. They are the the eastbound and westbound off-ramps at Alameda Avenue along the southbound I-5, which is expected to open in April, and the  eastbound and westbound off-ramps at Alameda Avenue along the northbound I-5, which are expected to open in May. Other intermittent closures are: * Southbound I-5, eastbound and westbound Alameda Avenue off ramps, from  7 p.m. to 6 a.m. and from  9 a.m. to 3 p.m. * Southbound I-5, eastbound and westbound Alameda Avenue on-ramps, from  7 p.m. to 6 a.m. and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. * Northbound I-5, eastbound and westbound Alameda Avenue off-ramps, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m * Northbound I-5, eastbound and westbound Alameda Avenue on-ramps, from  7 p.m. to 6 a.m.  and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. * Southbound I-5, eastbound and westbound  Western Avenue off-ramps, from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. * Southbound I-5, eastbound and westbound Western Avenue on-ramps, from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. * Northbound I-5, westbound Colorado Boulevard on-ramp, from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. (until 9 a.m....

Gov. Jerry Brown last week vetoed a bill that would have forced the California Department of Transportation to quickly sell some of the nearly 500 properties it owns within the path of a potential Long Beach (710) Freeway extension. In his veto message, Brown said he is working to find a solution for the so-called “710 gap,” where transportation officials are studying a 4.5-mile tunnel connecting the 710 and Foothill (210) freeways even as local leaders and residents raise alarms about the proposal.

This week I sent a formal request demanding that the California Department of Transportation end all efforts to further the 710 Freeway extension. Since my days as La Cañada Flintridge mayor and councilman, I have been given false and misleading information from tunnel proponents bent on building the 710 tunnel at all costs. The public's trust is too high a price to pay for any project. Last week I received the results for an audit of Caltrans that I had requested last year. I was outraged to learn that Caltrans has been spending millions of dollars every year without any clear scope of work or accountability.

La Cañada Flintridge residents and leaders said that they were disappointed but not surprised by regional transportation planners' decision Thursday to keep alive the prospect of a tunnel from the Long Beach (710) Freeway to the Foothill (210) Freeway in Pasadena, even as they eliminated several other alternatives. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Agency “knows what they want to do, they're hell-bent on doing it,” said Jan SooHoo, a La Cañada resident and member of the No 710 Action Committee.

Auditors got an earful last week regarding the nearly 400 homes that the state purchased decades ago for a possible surface extension of the Long Beach (710) Freeway. In that time, the California Department of Transportation, which owns the homes, has been accused of being a poor landlord, and a groundswell is growing to force the agency to sell the properties, especially since extending the 710 Freeway to connect with the Foothill (210) Freeway will now likely involve an underground tunnel.

Local and state officials have announced a $72-million project to add truck lanes on the Interstate 5 through Newhall Pass and into Santa Clarita. The truck lanes are needed to separate heavy big-rig traffic from passenger vehicles and create safer, quicker passage for a growing population in the Santa Clarita Valley, state transportation officials say. The southbound truck lane will extend 3.7 million from Pico Canyon Road/Lyons Avenue in Santa Clarita to the Antelope Valley (SR-14)

A 25-year-old Glendale motorist is free on bail following a fiery crash Saturday night that shut down the Ventura (134) Freeway for hours, police said. Prosecutors have yet to file charges against the motorist, Hakop Maghakyan, who was taken into custody about 1:45 a.m. Sunday by Glendale police. California Highway Patrol officials said Maghakyan was drunk and speeding when his car crashed into a tanker full of gasoline near the Golden State (5) Freeway. Maghakyan was released about noon the same day after posting a $5,000 bail.

More overnight closures on the 405 Freeway are planned for Friday and Saturday as construction crews continue to work on the Mulholland Drive overpass. Caltrans said it would close the northbound 405 between Getty Center Drive and Ventura Boulevard around 11 p.m. with some ramps closing as early as 7 p.m. On Saturday, crews will close southbound lanes from the 101 Freeway to Getty Center Drive, using the same time schedule. Full closures are expected to be in place by about 1 a.m. each day with lanes expected to reopen by 6 a.m. Continue reading > > -- Matt Stevens, Los Angeles Times

State transportation officials say they are offering contractors millions of dollars in incentives to finish a massive construction project along the Golden State (5) Freeway ahead of schedule. The incentives come after representatives for the California Department of Transportation heard concerns that the work on the I-5 corridor through Burbank would isolate neighborhoods around the Empire Center and limit access to Bob Hope Airport. They hope the incentives will shave up to a year off the project timeline.