CalTrans Only eastbound lanes of Simi Valley highway are fully funded for widening.

The California Transportation Commission will fund only $6 million of an additional $33 million that Ventura County transportation officials say is needed to complete the westbound portion of the Highway 118 widening project in Simi Valley. The decision leaves open the possibility of a lopsided project.

CTC last year funded the $50-million project to relieve congestion on a stretch that carries 117,000 vehicles per day, with two-hour traffic jams during morning and evening rush hours. Without this project, county officials estimate congestion will double in 20 years.

The first phase for work on eastbound lanes broke ground on March 29 and is scheduled for completion in mid-2009. C.A. Rasmussen Inc., Simi Valley, is general contractor for the California Dept. of Transportation. Work includes adding a fourth lane for more than 10 miles to the Los Angeles County line, widening four bridges, erecting new soundwalls and adding fiber-optic cable. The second phase would include similar work on the westbound lanes. 

The Ventura County Transportation Commission requested the extra $33 million for phase two earlier this year, due to increased overall construction costs. But “CTC staff erroneously classified it as a new project,” instead of part of the overall widening project, and recommended that the request be denied, says Peter De Haan, VCTC director of projects.

Subsequent hearings led to the decision to fund just $6 million, for a pair of freeway ramps. The money comes from the $20-billion transportation bond measure passed by Californians last November. “Ventura County has received [more than] its share [of state funding] continuously for the last six or seven years,” says David Brewer, CTC chief deputy director. “This was just more than we could squeeze into the State Transportation Improvement Program this cycle.”

De Haan contends that it would be a “shame to stop construction and then remobilize again a few years later” to finish the project. “Everyone would get hit with construction twice and it would waste a lot of the state’s money,” he says.

CTC did allow for funding the full $33 million next year, notes De Haan. “That way, we should still be able to get the money in time,” he says. But Brewer cautions that it’s “quite possible” the money won’t be available. “It depends a lot on how much money the legislature provides us next year,” he says. “If [Ventura] had a local [dedicated] sales tax, they might have been able to fund this project entirely by themselves.”