If all goes according to multi-faceted Caltrans plans, a third lane will be added sometime in the next five or six years to both sides of Highway 101 between Mussel Shoals and the east end Santa Barbara. Ventura County planning commissioners approved the Mussel Shoals to Rincon portion part of the project late last week after an epic eight-hour hearing. Looking to add lanes in a particularly narrow, ocean-fronted stretch of the freeway, the plan also calls for constructing an underground tunnel for pedestrian access to the beach west of La Conchita, eliminating the dangerous left-hand turn lanes, reconfiguring the Mussel Shoals on-ramp, and building an ocean front-bike trail though the neighborhood as part of the California Coastal Trail.
