Donlon Road Realignment (Finalist)

After 30 years of traffic headaches and accidents for commuters and residents, the new Donlon Road realignment has made it much safer and quicker to get in and out of the historic Somis neighborhood and to commute on State Route 118.  After many years of planning and design, the new Donlon Road opened in March of 2016, alleviating a serious traffic accident hot-spot and relieving heavy congestion at the intersection of State Route 118 (SR 118) and Somis Road.

The problem was that SR 118, a heavy commuter route, had two intersections offset only 150 feet apart—one with Donlon Road and the other with Somis Road.  Due to the close proximity of the two intersections, adequate left turn pockets were not possible.  Left-turning traffic in both directions backed up into the through lanes on SR 118, resulting in a high rate of accidents and severe congestion at the intersection. The intersection was notorious for accidents, having had 34 incidents in a recent 3-year period.  Compounding the problem, the existing traffic signal had to be phased separately for each leg, often resulting in mile-long traffic queues during rush hour.  Despite these difficulties, a powerful local group of residents effectively opposed and prevented improvements to the intersection for over 15 years, through CEQA challenges.  They were concerned that improving the intersection would induce growth in the rural farming community.

Originally, Caltrans planned to construct improvements to SR 118 and replace the signal, and then the County of Ventura would realign Donlon Road to meet the upgraded 3-legged intersection.  However, due to the intense opposition Caltrans encountered during the environmental clearance process (and a lost lawsuit), Caltrans dropped their project.  The County was left to expand the Donlon Road Realignment project to include upgrading and widening the SR 118 corridor to meet State standards, as well as realigning Donlon Road to meet the signalized intersection.  This doubled the cost of the project and required extensive interaction with Caltrans.

The new Donlon Road alignment traverses what was an existing landscape nursery and crosses over a creek before joining existing Donlon Road. This required a new bridge over the creek—a 30’ wide x 12’ high precast concrete arch culvert was installed.  On SR 118 the project adds long left-turn lanes in both directions, a new traffic signal, and new 8-foot-wide paved shoulders.

Construction of the project cost $2.3 million, and was completed with 4% in contract change orders.  The project was completed on schedule, between June 2015 and March 2016.