Traffic is moving better than it has in years through one of the busiest, and what has been one of the most frustrating freeway interchanges in Ventura County.
The Highway 101-Highway 23 interchange is used by more than 170,000 commuters on an average weekday, and it had become one of the most congested sections of freeway in the county. A more than two year long, $37 million dollar project to improve the interchange is now complete.
It included adding lanes, rebuilding some bridges, and other steps to relieve the congestion.
The project had been talked about for years, with funding a key roadblock. The City of Thousand Oaks loaned nearly $17 million dollars to jump start the mostly state and federally funded project.
Dozens of local, state, and federal officials gathered in Thousand Oaks for an event to celebrate the completion of the work.
Some leaders took advantage of the occasion to lobby for Ventura County’s Measure AA, a proposed 30 year long half cent sales tax for transportation projects in the county. Keith Millhouse, a longtime Moorpark City Councilman and Chairman of the Ventura County Transportation Commission, says while they were able to get creative with financing and do the interchange project, the well for more major freeway, and highway improvements is now dry. Measure AA opponents contend it should be rejected because they feel how the new tax revenue would be used isn’t clearly defined.
As for the interchange project, there is still some minor cleanup work underway, like landscaping. But, the construction signs and barricades are gone, the lanes are open, and traffic is moving. The hope is that the completed project will not only reduce bottlenecks in the area, but improve safety by ending the stop and go traffic which sometimes resulted in fender bender traffic accidents.
