Kanan Road interchange

We’re frustrated and we’re not going to take it anymore, but we’ll have to. In fact, the worst is yet to come.

Frustration, delays, horn-honking and a few well-laced curse words are only part of the fallout from the Kanan Road interchange improvement in Agoura Hills. And the big work hasn’t even begun yet. At least Canwood Street has been rebuilt and we’re no longer blowing out tires and axles on the deep-pitted rut of a road that it used to be.

Delays in getting the project underway have pushed the total cost from $21 million to $25 million, and the meter is still running.

Of that cost, the county’s Metropolitan Transit Authority is paying $10.5 million. The Jerry Snyder development on Canwood Street with its new apartments and other commercial buildings is kicking in another $5 million to $8 million in road and right-of-way improvements. In addition, the city has set aside several million dollars of its own, but about $5 million of the total cost still remains unfunded.

City officials want the federal government to pay for the balance, saying that the Kanan interchange is a regional, not local infrastructure and used each day by thousands of motorists who live outside of Agoura Hills.

It’s true that many out-of-town motorists take the overpass each day to reach Oak Park and other communities to the north and Malibu to the south. But those same travelers also stop in Agoura Hills to buy food, gasoline and other goods and services. Agoura Hills derives great benefit from these passers-by, and without a Kanan Road exit there might not have been an Agoura Hills in the first place.

So here’s the point. The federal government’s contribution to the Kanan Road project could be jeopardized in the upcoming Washington budget cuts. If it turns out that the money’s not available, then it’s imperative that the city move quickly to float a bond measure or use its own reserves to meet the final cost and see the construction through.

So far, City Manager Greg Ramirez and his assistant, Jim Thorsen, have done a good job shepherding the project. Be patient and the new interchange will turn out to be a job well done. It won’t be anytime soon, however.