SANTA CLARITA — Members of the City Council were taken aback Wednesday to learn that a roadway which connects the 5 and 14 freeways has existed for decades, rendering  their signature project, the so-called “Cross Valley Connector,” completely unnecessary.

Mayor Laurene Weste discovered the ancient passageway while studying a map of the SCV transit system. She noticed that by taking Soledad Canyon to Valencia Boulevard, motorists could traverse the entire city from the east end to the west.

“Conversely,” noted a disheartened Weste, “you can also drive from west to east.”

The Mayor called it an “Aha!” moment when she realized that Valencia Boulevard actually turned into Soledad Canyon.

“Despite our previous misconceptions, these are not two completely separate streets that have nothing to do with one another,” she explained to her colleagues at the last council meeting. ”Rather, they form a single thoroughfare,  joined together in one contiguous roadway, creating a dedicated route that stretches from the 5 to the 14.”

The announcement that a way to cross the valley had existed for almost a half a century prior to the opening of the city’s much heralded road project left officials dumbstruck.

“All this time, we already had a Cross Valley Connector,” laughed Councilmember Laurie Ender, “and didn’t even know it.”

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An embarrased Weste told reporters that while she and her fellow council members accept some of the responsibilty for the gaffe,  the public must share the blame. “If someone had brought this up at one of our meetings over the ten-year period that it took to complete the project,” she noted, “we would have halted construction immediately.”

Councilman Bob Kellar contends he opposed the project from the beginning. Instead of investing $245 million in tax revenue to build a redundant roadway, Kellar said he would have preferred spending the money on building a ten-foot concrete block wall along the Canyon Country border to prevent illegal immigrants from entering Valencia.

For her part, Weste remained philosophical about the costly new highway.  “At least we finally got to use that stage coach for the opening day ceremony,” she said. “We can cross that off our bucket list.”