Community Update

Traffic
Gridlock

There
is a plan afoot to work on Sepulveda road between Marine and
Rosecrans, starting about a year from now and lasting at least one
year. It will cause traffic gridlock all over MB with nothing to
show for it.

MB
city hall (fronting for Caltrans) claims there is a bottleneck on the
bridge

near
Rosecrans and it needs widening. Nothing could be farther from the
truth. South of Horondo, Sepulveda/PCH has two traffic lanes in each
direction, and between Horondo and Rosecrans there are 3 traffic
lanes in each direction. Sometimes there are additional lanes or
islands in the middle of the road or deceleration lanes. However, as
far as traffic is concerned there are currently 3 traffic lanes
across the bridge in each direction, the same as everywhere else.
Moreover, there is a decent wide sidewalk over the bride.

Their
description of fixing a bottleneck is both false and does not
describe what they are planning. They are planning on adding a 4th
lane for northbound traffic from Marine to Rosecrans. Yes folks,
after they are done, northbound traffic will have 4 lanes for a short
spell, and southbound will have 3! This will be done by widening the
bridge east, by commandeering some deceleration lanes and taking some
land from the Village Mall. Conveniently, this is being timed for
the expansion of the mall; the mall will contribute the needed land
for the road project, in lieu of MB city hall approving their mall
expansion project.

This
project will affect both northbound and southbound traffic because
Caltrans wants to widen the sidewalks from 5 feet to 6 feet and also
replace an already solid barrier with an even more solid barrier. We
are promised to have 2 lanes in each direction while work is in
progress. You know every time a large truck or bulldozer has to move
around that traffic will temporarily be closed totally. In an
attempt to avoid the gridlock on Sepulveda, many will use the other
major north-south bound arteries, Highland Avenue and Aviation Blvd.
to get in and out of town. Highland and Aviation are already jammed
during rush hour and lunch hour and their bad situation will get even
worse.

This
will cost $21.3 Million, about the same as the MB yearly Police
Department budget. Fortunately most but not all of it is being paid
by other governmental entities. If you had a perfectly fine heart
would you undergo a heart operation if most of it were being paid for
by others?

This
coming Tuesday, 25th
March, starting at 6:30 pm. Manhattan Beach city council are meeting
at city hall to discuss this among other things. If you feel as I
do, that this is a disgraceful boondoggle, where you will feel all
the pain of the construction, but not feel any gain from it, please
come to city council on Tuesday and ask city council to stop this.