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Angeles National Forest Road Repairs Inch Ahead

Posted on: Monday, 26 September 2005, 21:00 CDT

By Patricia Farrell Aidem, Daily News, Los Angeles

Sep. 27--ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST -- Every morning and evening, commuters follow a pilot car on a trail along the fractured San Francisquito Canyon Road, a back road damaged in last year's heavy rain and likely to have its use severely curtailed for six more months.

In Castaic, families travel through the gates of the county jail as a detour to the damaged route to the neighboring animal shelter, where pound animals await adoption. Relief there is in sight. The damaged route is expected to reopen in the next few weeks.

In more remote north-county corners, particularly in the Angeles National Forest, it will be several months before roads are repaired after last year's raging wildfires and subsequent winter flooding, county and U.S. Forest Service officials said.

More than 50 inches of rain pelted parts of the region over the winter, flooding areas charred by brush fires the previous summer. With no vegetation left to protect the mountainsides, mud flowed into rivers and took out dozens of roads.

The storms left some $83 million in damage to county flood control channels and roads, including San Francisquito bridge damage estimated at $6 million. Repairs of local forest roads and trails are expected to cost more than $10 million when complete.

"It's been a pain in the behind," said Bob Bianchi, who lives in Green Valley, at the top of San Francisquito Canyon, and commutes to the San Fernando Valley.

Bianchi follows the pilot car to work and back each day and evening, but the escorts stop at 7 p.m. and don't run on weekends. That means no quick trips to the stores and restaurants of Santa Clarita -- civilization compared with his canyon home.

"Weekends, we can't go out to dinner without driving all the way around," he said. "It's kind of put a little crimp in our style."

Commuters see daily progress, but road crews now must race time as winter approaches.

"Hopefully, the weather will cooperate, and the repair work won't be interrupted too much," said Ken Pellman, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works.

"There was a lot of widespread damage. A lot of infrastructure actually had to be repaired (or) replaced before the actual roadwork can be done.

It seems they're making progress now, but it takes time."

Canyon Road, a popular freeway alternative between the Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys, has been pushed back from December to late March, with the two-lane highway a shambles after sodden sections broke off into the creek below.

One lane is somewhat passable, and county government provides the escort during commuter hours to guide motorists along the treacherous route.

The speed limit is 25 mph on the 1.8-mile stretch of road. That program was suspended one day last week when a surprise storm hit the region, Pellman said.

For Liz Farinella-Ekeberg of Don-E-Brook Farms, an equestrian center on San Francisquito south of the closure, life is quieter these days.

"I feel for the people who have to go way around because the road's damaged, but it's been nice, really nice," she said. "There's not much traffic. The trail riders are safer."

There's good news about the main access to the county's Castaic Animal Shelter. Tapia Canyon Road, closed in April by storm damage, is expected to open in the next few weeks, Pellman said. The gates of the neighboring Pitchess Detention Center have been opened to give traffic access to the shelter.

Within the nearby forest, two-thirds of the storm-damaged roads remain closed, Cid Morgan, district ranger for the section of Angeles that stretches around the two valleys, said in a recent interview.

A top concern is badly damaged Dry Gulch Road, linking San Francisquito and Lake Hughes roads, Morgan said. Crews have spent much of the year clearing and regrading less-used roads to make them passable for emergency teams as the worst of the traditional fire season approaches.

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Source: Daily News - Los Angeles, California

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