Study Says Extension Would Ease Santa Clarita Traffic

A draft report on extending Lyons Avenue to the Antelope Valley Freeway in Santa Clarita concludes that the extension would provide a much needed east-west route through the city at an estimated cost of $24.4 million.

The roughly three-mile extension of the road from San Fernando Road east to the freeway would turn Lyons into a four-lane route connecting the Golden State and Antelope Valley freeways.

The extension would help relieve traffic on Placerita Canyon Road, a rural and mostly residential two-lane road that now bears the brunt of east-west traffic in the area.

Residents along Placerita Canyon Road have long sought an alternative east-west traffic artery.

“The people living on Placerita Canyon Road are getting a whole heck of a lot of traffic,” said the city’s spokeswoman, Gail Foy. “Over the years, the traffic has been getting progressively worse. Having another arterial road would take the traffic off of there.”

The city has scheduled a meeting Wednesday at City Hall during which public comment on the report will be invited. The City Council will take up the proposal on Nov. 29.

City Engineer Dick Kopecky said Placerita Canyon Road now handles 6,000 to 8,000 vehicle trips each day, and traffic studies project that demand on the road could be as high as 20,000 vehicles a day by the year 2010.

Kopecky said Placerita Canyon Road could not handle that much traffic, but the Lyons extension would be able to accommodate much of the traffic.

Kopecky said it appears that the city already has the right of way to construct the extension. “We would not have to remove buildings,” he said.

But he said the city also faces the possibility of having to build an overpass across the Southern Pacific railroad tracks near San Fernando Road if the state Public Utilities Commission objects to placing a crossing at the tracks. The costs of an overpass are not included in the $24.4-million estimated cost of the project.

The city is still studying methods of funding the proposed extension, but officials said fees on developers could pay a portion of the cost.

The draft report on Lyons also addresses two proposed north-south roads that could be connected with the Lyons extension.

One proposal is to build Rio Vista Road from Bouquet Canyon Road south to Lyons at an estimated cost of $40 million.

The other proposal is to couple the Lyons extension with a new road called Santa Clarita Parkway, which would run from Bouquet Canyon Road south to where Lyons connects with the Antelope Valley Freeway. The parkway would cost an estimated $48 million.

Word of the report was good news to homeowners in Placerita Canyon.

Steve Schafhausen, chairman of the road committee for the local homeowners group, said the Lyons extension is long overdue.

“We are absolutely in favor of it and it is something that has been needed for years,” he said.

“Placerita Canyon Road is a rural road that has been asked because of the growth of the city to become a major arterial. It was not built for that purpose. It has become a bad situation that needs to be taken care of.”