Construction begins this month on 118

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. It will also install fiberoptic 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.

At last Thursday's groundbreaking ceremony, chairman of the Ventura County Transportation Commission Joe DeVito stressed how the project would increase safety through the popular Simi Valley passageway.

"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," DeVito said.

According to Caltrans, this $46.5-million project, funded with Proposition 50 money, is expected to be completed in mid-2009.

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.