Construction to begin on 118 Freeway

The California Department of Transportation announced that construction is expected to begin this month to widen the eastbound portion of the 118 Freeway from Tapo Street to Kuehner Drive.

The project will widen the freeway from three to four lanes, construct soundwalls and widen four bridges. The project will install fiber-optic cables underneath the pavement from Tapo Canyon Road to the Los Angeles County line, which will provide realtime traffic data to the Caltrans Transportation Management Center for dissemination to the public, the media and the Internet.

Ojai Councilmember and chairman of the Ventura County Transportation Commission Joe DeVito said, "This project does something for all of us. Most importantly, in matters of safety, studies and reports have shown that accidents caused by congestion are decreased when there is improved traffic flow. This project will improve safety."

Other elected officials present were Simi Valley Mayor Paul Miller, Ventura County Supervisor Peter Foy, Thousand Oaks Mayor Pro Tem Jacqui Irwin and City Councilmembers Barbra Williamson of Simi Valley and Keith Millhouse of Moorpark.

According to Caltrans, this $46.5 million project is expected to be completed in mid2009. This project is statefunded through the Ventura County Transportation Commission.

Phase 2, which will widen the westbound portion of Highway 118, is currently in the design stage and is expected to begin next year at an additional cost of $34.5 million.

The Phase 1 contractor is C.A. Rasmussen of Simi Valley.