Problems Beset Effort to Widen Freeway Bridge : Traffic: Ventura and Oxnard officials disagree over funding of the project to remedy congestion at the Santa Clara River. The state also has given it a low priority.

Every day, thousands of rush-hour motorists traveling the Ventura Freeway across the Santa Clara River Bridge between Oxnard and Ventura face one of the most frustrating commuter experiences: a bottleneck.

On bad days, traffic on northbound lanes backs up all the way to Camarillo. The congestion is so bad that traffic engineers have rated the traffic level on the bridge an F--as in the grade a teacher gives a failing student.

About 117,000 motorists cross the six-lane bridge every day.

And some of them cross each other. Authorities have reported 100 accidents on the bridge between January, 1987, and September, 1990. Last week, two people suffered minor injuries when morning rush-hour traffic came to a sudden stop, causing a seven-vehicle pileup involving a tractor-trailer rig.

“It’s not so much the number of accidents,” said California Highway Patrol Officer Jim Utter. “It’s just that when we do have an accident it causes a real problem because it’s the only real bridge between Oxnard and Ventura.”

However, an effort to ease the traffic problem by widening the bridge and improving adjoining on-ramps has been about as troublesome as the traffic.

Caltrans estimates that 178,000 cars will travel over the bridge each day by 2010. However, a plan to widen the bridge to 12 lanes is at the bottom of Caltrans’ seven-year priority list, and a squabble among local officials over funding threatens to delay the project even further.

Meanwhile, the possibility of further delays has worried the developer of Oxnard Town Center, a massive, $500-million mixed-use project next to the bridge. River Edge Development Co. of Buellton cannot complete the center’s second phase of construction until the bridge is widened.

“Almost everything hinges on funding and the exact scope of work,” said Robert Weithofer, a traffic engineer for Oxnard.

Discord over the bridge traffic problem began in 1985, when the city of Ventura sued Oxnard, charging that development of Oxnard Town Center would add too much traffic to surrounding streets, including some in Ventura.

The 265-acre center, plans for which include a 1-million-square-foot shopping mall, 1,034 hotel rooms, a cultural center, restaurants and a bank, is expected to generate about 92,000 vehicle trips a day when it is completed in 2010.

In 1986, representatives of Oxnard, Ventura and Robert P. Warmington & Co., the original developer of the project, settled the lawsuit. The parties agreed to join with the California Department of Transportation to fund road improvements on the bridge and nearby on-ramps.

Under the agreement, the developer would pay for an engineering study of road improvements needed to address traffic problems until 2010.

Warmington also agreed that until the bridge is widened, Oxnard Town Center would not be developed past the first construction phase, which includes fewer than 1 million square feet of offices, retail space and restaurants. Upon completion, the center will total about 4.4 million square feet.

The engineering study, finished in July, 1990, recommended that the bridge be widened from six lanes to 12, a project that would cost about $44 million and take two years to complete.

Caltrans has agreed to pay for half of the project, with Oxnard and Ventura splitting the other half. However, state officials decided last year that the project should be given low priority.

The engineering study, prepared by DKS Associates of Los Angeles, also estimated the amount of traffic on the bridge generated over the next 20 years by each of the two cities. Based on those numbers, the study concluded that Oxnard should pay 58% of the cost, or about $13 million, and Ventura should pay 42%, or $9 million.

Warmington agreed to pay about 45% of Oxnard’s share of the split, or about $6 million.

Officials generally agree on the study’s recommendations on easing traffic, but council members from Ventura and Oxnard disagree on how much each city should have to pay.

“The sticking point has always been how the costs are going to be split,” Oxnard City Councilman Manuel Lopez said.

Since the settlement, he said, council members from both cities have met to discuss the cost split “about half a dozen times.”

Although the lawsuit settlement requires the cities “to treat the necessary improvements to Highway 101 from Vineyard to Johnson Drive as their ‘No. 1’ priority,” the last meeting was about seven months ago and no further meetings have been scheduled.

Officials in both cities said there is no hurry to iron out the dispute because the project cannot be built for seven years. They declined to discuss details of the dispute, except to say that both sides interpret the terms of the settlement differently.

Officials at River Edge, which took over the shopping center project about three years ago, worry that the dispute will jeopardize the state’s financial contribution to the project.

“My biggest concern is losing the state money,” said Ronald Roberts, a River Edge vice president and project manager.

A Caltrans spokeswoman said the department could re-evaluate, and possibly reject, a state funding proposal for a road improvement project if local funds fall through.

“Caltrans doesn’t simply make up the funding if local agencies back out,” Lisa Covington said.

Covington said Caltrans will probably sign a formal funding agreement with the two cities sometime in the next two or three years. If local officials are not ready to sign the agreements, she said, Caltrans will re-evaluate the project’s priority.

Roberts suggested that Ventura officials might be slowing negotiations because completion of the project would give River Edge a green light to build out Oxnard Town Center.

Once completed, the center is expected to generate $5.3 million in sales taxes for Oxnard and compete directly with Ventura and other surrounding cities for tax revenue.

A high-ranking county official said he also believes that Ventura officials might be delaying the project to put off completion of Oxnard Town Center. “There is a lot of jealousy,” the official, who requested anonymity, said. “It all boils down to money.”

Ventura City Manager John Baker rejected claims that Ventura is delaying the bridge improvement project, saying his council simply has more pressing issues to address.

“When the project is not up for seven years, are you going to worry about this over such issues as water conservation?” he asked. “The answer is no.”

Lopez said he is not convinced that Ventura officials are stalling the process but added, “They certainly have no incentive to see the project completed.”