Were you surprised to see this?
by Jeff Hereford, City of Ventura Civil Engineer
Harbor Boulevard west of Figueroa (adjacent to the Amtrak station) has been permanently converted to an eastbound one way street. Note that the section of Harbor Boulevard east of Garden Street (adjacent to the fairgrounds) is already an eastbound one way street.
For the past couple years Harbor Boulevard west of Figueroa has been converted to eastbound one way as a part of the VC Fair traffic control set up. Since the conversion was made VPD has indicated a significant improvement to traffic flow during the 10 days of the fair, particularly when fairgoers exit the fairgrounds in the late evening. A significant amount of work has to be done each year to make this conversion which includes re-striping the roadway. The removal of the striping has an impact to the condition of the pavement and over time will require additional maintenance. In addition, there is a significant cost in making these changes each year.
With the growing number of special events at the Fairgrounds and the amount of work it takes to convert to one way each year prior to the fair, it would be beneficial to just make the one way permanent. People wanting to go to the Amtrak station will need to traverse through the fairgrounds parking lot. New signage has been installed as a part of the permanent conversion to guide motorists to the station. The fairgrounds will accommodate access to the station through their parking lot. The fairgrounds already has an agreement with the City to provide 22 parking spaces in their lot for long term parking for Amtrak passengers. In addition to coordinating with the fairgrounds we have also coordinated with the DVP (Downtown Ventura Partners)trolley. The trolley will also need to traverse through the fairgrounds parking lot. This has been discussed and there doesn’t seem to be any issues.
The plan is to evaluate the one way conversion in six months to see if there are any major issues that arise. The City, Fairgrounds, VPD, Fire, and DVP will all be involved in the evaluation. Since the striping has been done in paint rather than a more permanent striping material it can be changed back to the original layout fairly easy.
