Delays From Beverly Glen Closure Fall Short of Predictions

San Fernando Valley commuters who drive Beverly Glen Boulevard to work each morning faced few of the traffic delays transportation officials had predicted when the road was closed Monday for two months of storm-drain and road improvements, officials said.

The closure of Beverly Glen from Valley Vista Boulevard to Mulholland Drive forced up to 2,000 motorists an hour during peak traffic periods onto three main alternate routes--the San Diego Freeway, Sepulveda Boulevard and Coldwater Canyon Avenue.

The San Diego Freeway and Sepulveda were “busier than most days,” said Thomas Conner, chief engineer for the Los Angeles city Department of Transportation. Motorists who took Coldwater Canyon experienced “delays of no more than 10 minutes” beyond what they normally face, he said.

Transportation authorities previously had feared gridlock on roads leading to Beverly Glen, the most heavily traveled cross-mountain route between the Valley and the Westside, if motorists did not use alternate routes. To assist them, 3,000 flyers were handed out last month by the transportation department.

“I guess the word got out,” Conner said. Traffic on Coldwater Canyon, which normally slows to a stop-and-go pace as far north as Ventura Boulevard, “was backed up for a mile more back to the Ventura Freeway,” he said.

The road closure is part of the second phase of a $1.8-million cooperative storm-drain and road resurfacing project by the city and county of Los Angeles, said Jean Granucci, a county public works spokeswoman. Granucci said the project is scheduled to be finished Aug. 12.

Conner said city transportation engineers will be making traffic signal adjustments to ease congestion on Coldwater Canyon and recommended that motorists may want to try the San Diego Freeway or Sepulveda Boulevard as alternatives.