SO SOCAL: The Best...The Beautiful...And The Bizarre : CHAT ROOM : Oleander, Next 7 Exits
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Bill Koval is one of two senior landscape architects at Caltrans District 7. Every leaf and petal growing along the freeways, state highways, park-and-ride lots and Caltrans maintenance buildings in Los Angeles and Ventura counties must meet its approval. Genial and wry, Koval is 56 and lives in Glendale.
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Q: Any plants that just don’t cut it?
A: Oh, lots. There are so many conditions the plants have to put up with on the freeway. We get a lot more failures than successes.
Q: Failures?
A: Probably the biggest one is the trailing African daisy. It looked like it was going to be a real winner for us. It certainly was showy, with the white daisy cup flowers. And it did very well for five to seven years, then it started to die out on us.
Q: What kind of landscaping do you go for at home?
A: Landscaping that’s similar to freeway. Low maintenance. That’s one of the primary considerations of freeway landscaping. Its visual and functional benefits, safety, maintainability and low cost.
Q: Any innovations in freeway landscaping that began in L.A.?
A: The impact sprinkler with anti-backsplash device was developed specifically for us many years ago.
Q: What would you like an educated motorist to notice going down the freeway?
A: How well the landscaping blends the freeway roadsides into the adjacent environment. To a large extent, if you don’t notice it at all, that’s a pretty good thing, too.
Q: The oleander in the middle of the freeway through the city of Ventura--I’ve always enjoyed that.
A: That’s why it’s still there--a lot of people have.
Q: Is there a side opposed to it?
A: Yeah, us. The nature of freeway traffic has changed over the last 20, 30 years. It’s faster, and in a lot of ways it’s gotten meaner. And we have to have people go out there in the median and maintain [the oleander]. That’s a very undesirable situation from a safety standpoint. If it wasn’t so attractive, we would have taken it out.
Q: Do your people die out there?
A: Sadly, yes. We’ve lost over 100 Caltrans workers since the early days--on the job, hit by vehicles.
Q: What would you like your plaque in the Freeway Landscaping Hall of Fame to say?
A: He done good.
