By Sophia Fischer sfischer@theacorn.com

Both transportation officials and residents expressed frustration over delays in the 101 and 23 freeway interchange expansion during a public hearing hosted last week by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans).

The hearing at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza attracted more than 40 people, many of them senior citizens. Caltrans officials presented the project and answered questions.

The plans call for widening the 101 from the L.A. County line around Westlake Boulevard to the Moorpark Road undercrossing, widening the 23 and 101 connectors, and adding soundwalls in several areas to help minimize traffic noise in adjacent neighborhoods and commercial areas.

The cost is expected to be as much as $29.5 million.

The project has been held up for several years and will continue to be on hold until a separate project to widen the 23 Freeway is completed.

"The whole issue is money," said Safwat Salahieh, a Caltrans engineer. "If we had the money, we could have done both at the same time and the whole system would have been complete by 2006."

The funds had been allocated and were available, added Salahieh, but the money was borrowed to help balance the state’s budget last year.

"The promise is that the Legislature and the governor will pay us back. We anticipate that they will make good on their promise," said Ronald Kosinski, deputy district director, Caltrans Office of Environmental Planning, District 7.

In the meantime, both projects have been delayed due to the state’s budget crisis, and many residents at the hearing complained about the long wait for soundwalls.

"I can hear the traffic inside my home and in the last year it’s gotten worse as traffic has increased. We’ve even had cars come off the freeway and into homes," said Mary Kalkiewicz, who’s lived in the Thunderbird Oaks Mobile Home Park since 1985. "We need those soundwalls."

The mobile home park is located just southwest of the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, parallel with the 101 and just below the meeting point of the 101 and 23. Dean Nash, who also lives in the mobile home community, played a recording of traffic noise outside his home taped earlier that afternoon.

"There’s no peace and quiet outside the house," Nash said. "It’s gotten worse over the years."

The soundwalls will be the first part of the project to be built once construction begins, according to Caltrans officials, but residents will have to wait a little longer until the funding is returned and the 23 Freeway widening is completed.

"Essentially, State Road 23 gets widened first before adding more traffic from the 101 when it is widened," said project manager Aythem Al-Saleh.

The current schedule Caltrans officials presented shows that construction on the 101/23 interchange is set to begin in February 2009 and will be completed in February 2012. The widening of the 23 Freeway is scheduled to begin during the 2005/06 fiscal year.

"I know some of you have waited long enough for those soundwalls to help you sleep and feel better," Salahieh said. "This project takes that into consideration."

Concerns about air quality and about the planned removal of 42 trees also came up at the meeting.

Twenty valley oaks and 22 coast live oaks will be removed in order to accommodate the project. Officials assured residents that the trees will be replaced either in the right of way or in another location in coordination with the city of Thousand Oaks.

The project will actually have a positive effect on air quality, according to Kosinski, based on air analyses conducted.

"When traffic is stop-and-go, there are more pollutants pouring out of automobiles," Kosinski said. "With free-flowing traffic, air quality improves."

According to Caltrans, the 40-mile stretch of the 101 Freeway between the 23 and the 110 in downtown Los Angeles is one of the most congested highways in the nation. With a 25 percent increase in population in the surrounding areas expected over the next two decades, a committee was first convened in 2000 to see how to improve the corridor to accommodate the increases in traffic.

Caltrans is accepting public comment on an environmental impact report until Feb. 8. The report is available at the Thousand Oaks Library or at the Caltrans District 7 office in Los Angeles. It can also be accessed at www.dot.ca.gov/dist07/. Click on "environmental planning" and then "environmental document."

Comments can be e-mailed to Liz_Suh@dot.ca.gov or mailed to the Caltrans District 7 Office, Division of Environmental Planning, 100 S. Main St., Los Angeles, CA 90012, Attn.: Liz Suh.