Kanan Road is one of four primary roads into Malibu, with an estimated 20,000 vehicles a day using it to connect from the coast to the 101 Freeway.
By Hans Laetz/Special to The Malibu Times
Malibu motorists will soon have more than landslides, reversible lanes and water line repairs to bedevil them. Construction is about to begin in earnest on rebuilding the freeway interchange at a major Malibu gateway.
The Kanan Road interchange at the 101 Freeway will be completely revamped over the next 11 months, as a $23 million project to streamline and expand capacity at Agoura Hills’ major traffic knot gets underway.
Kanan Road is one of four primary roads into Malibu, with an estimated 20,000 vehicles a day using it to connect from the coast to 101. But the interchange was built in the 1950s, and despite being widened and signalized over the years, it is woefully overburdened and out of date, officials say.
Jim Thorsen, Agoura Hills assistant city manager, said the diamond interchange with adjacent frontage roads was never designed for anything other than a rural crossroads. Complicated six-phase traffic signals cannot hope to keep pace with traffic, which some mornings backs up for 10-15 minutes on southbound Kanan Road.
Snarls at the interchange have prompted the Agoura Hills City Council to allocate $12.5 million in city funds for the project. Regional gas taxes allocated to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority make up the other $10.5 million.
The new configuration will feature two new cloverleaf-style ramps to handle left turns from both directions of Kanan onto the freeway, eliminating left turn lanes from the overpass.
Freeway offramps will be set further back from the bridge to make room for the curving ramps, displacing some of the frontage roads. Officials warn relocation of the frontage roads will mean a dramatic change in traffic patterns.
Canwood Street to the northeast of the interchange has already been relocated one block away. Roadside Drive will get a signal on the south, but the western section of Roadside-a dead end-will get a new access route from Agoura Road and will be closed off from Kanan.
Malibu motorists accessing the 101 Freeway have largely been spared delays so far, Thorsen said, because work up to this time has all been on the north side of the freeway. But he said some major underground utility line relocation is about to take place amidst the jumble of shopping centers and fast food outlets south of the freeway, toward Malibu.
Thorsen said the underground work on Kanan Road toward Malibu will take six months to complete, and will feature frequent lane closures. “We anticipate delays,” he said.
Agoura Hills officials realize there are no alternative routes for most motorists using Kanan, and that the road takes on critical loads during storms, when Pacific Coast Highway and Malibu Canyon Road are frequently blocked, Thorsen said. He asked Malibu motorists to look at a special Web site, www.kananroad.org, which he said will be updated with timely closure information.