Rep. George Whitesides, D-Agua Dulce, joined city leaders Wednesday to announce that Santa Clarita is receiving over $1 million in federal funding to improve pedestrian safety and traffic circulation.
The $1.2 million check was presented on the corner of Valencia Boulevard and Magic Mountain Parkway, one of two intersections slated for improvements using that funding as part of the city’s Traffic Circulation and Pedestrian Safety Improvements Project.
“The proposed improvements will enhance traffic circulation at some of the city’s highest-volume intersections, between corridors that carry between 50,000 and 80,000 vehicles each day,” said Santa Clarita Mayor Laurene Weste. “This $1.2 million investment will deliver critical improvements.”
That investment will go toward construction costs for the project in the city’s 2027-28 budget. Project upgrades include widening intersections, adding lanes, revamping traffic signals and general roadway work, Weste said.
For the Valencia Boulevard-Magic Mountain Parkway intersection, that’ll mean modifying the median to be able to add a third left-turn lane on Magic Mountain Parkway for turning onto Valencia — which’ll both improve traffic flow and increase the visibility of pedestrians crossing in the area, said Masis Hagobian, the city’s intergovernmental relations officer.
At the other intersection included in the improvements project, at McBean Parkway and Newhall Ranch Road, the city will also modify the median and add a left-turn lane.
It’ll also add sensors — used at many intersections in Santa Clarita — that come with a camera for detecting pedestrians, bicyclists and ducks, triggering a light that indicates their presence to drivers, said City Engineer Shannon Pickett.
Whitesides secured the investment as part of a yearly petition process in which members of Congress can make requests for funding for local or state needs.
“Families in our area depend on safe streets and intersections to get … their kids dropped off at school and return home at the end of every day,” Whitesides said. “So, when we were looking for projects to advocate for as part of this year’s budget process, one issue came up over and over again, and that was commutes are too long, and our roads need fixing.”
With about 25,000 new residents expected to move into Santa Clarita by 2035, according to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the city has made road enhancements a priority for the past several years of federal budget requests.
“As the city continues to grow, we have a responsibility to really maintain a level of traffic safety and traffic flow,” Hagobian told The Signal following the press conference. “No one likes to sit in traffic for too long, especially after a long day … and so we really want to ensure that we continue to maintain that level of flow, whether it’s, again, with traffic, or whether it’s the relationship between vehicles, cyclists and those that are walking.”
