Bridge Repairs To Start In June

Detours, delays could take a year

By Nao Braverman
Ojai residents who reside east of the San Antonio Creek Bridge, should expect to be taking a temporary detour through the creek bottom to get home this summer. But by June 2009, bicycles should have a safe ride over the San Antonio Creek bridge as well as cars.
Caltrans officials confirmed Monday that the controversial replacement of the San Antonio Creek Bridge is now scheduled to begin in June.
Instead of diverting the East Ojai Avenue traffic onto Gridley Road, Grand Avenue and then Gorham Road, while the reconstruction takes place, many will be happy to hear that Caltrans engineers now plan to put the temporary detour through the creek bottom.
Initial plans to rebuild the 91-year-old bridge, which takes Ojai Avenue commuters across the San Antonio Creek in the East End, were met with controversy because of the proposed detour. Enraged neighborhood residents did not think it safe to divert the approximately 9,700 vehicles that would be expected to use the detour daily during construction, onto a residential road, that normally takes about 1,250 vehicle trips daily.
The 120-foot bridge, however, was deemed to be in “scour and critical condition,” and needs to be strengthened and broadened, according to agency engineers.
At a public meeting in July 2007 Caltrans engineers offered no alternative to the detour on Gridley, Grand and Gorham. At that time Caltrans engineer Steve Novotny told members of the public that a detour through the creek bottom would be nearly impossible. The Department of Fish and Game and the Army Corps of Engineers would not likely to grant Caltrans engineers the required permits to plow a temporary road into an environmentally sensitive area, he said.
Months later after much haggling from citizens, city and Public Works officials, Caltrans did offered an alternative two-phased bridge construction. Instead of the detour, the alternative would allow one lane of the bridge to remain open with a signal to regulate traffic going both ways on one lane. This, however, would slow traffic considerably, and would increase the project duration from the originally proposed six months, to two years, according to agency officials. The delay would be primarily due to the fact that Caltrans only allows construction during the official dry season, Caltrans officials said. At a December 2007 meeting, council members and citizens agreed that this alternative was almost as unfavorable as the initially proposed detour.
City manager Jere Kersnar said that city staff responded with a letter urging Caltrans to come up with another solution that involved neither a detour through residential neighborhoods, nor a two-year long traffic delay.
But this week Caltrans Public Information officer Judy Gish said that the agency currently plans to divert traffic via a creek bottom detour. Prior concerns about permits are no longer an issue, and the project is expected to go to bid in mid-May, said Gish, the bridge reconstruction plans remain the same as proposed a year ago. The currently 28-foot wide, 120-foot long structure will be expanded to 40 feet wide and 180 feet long, including a 4-foot-wide bike lane.
The project is expected to begin in June and be completed in a year, if all goes as planned. In addition to designing the new detour, Caltrans also has to build a temporary culvert system in the creek, said Gish. But as the project was initially supposed to begin in March or April, the delay is relatively short, she said.
Public Works director Mike Culver and Kersnar said they had not been informed of Caltrans’ new plans to divert traffic through the creek bottom. Both agreed that a creek bottom detour would be much better than the previously offered alternatives.
“They have been keeping me out of the loop here,” said Culver. Kersnar agreed that communication with Caltrans officials has been an ongoing struggle, but was pleased with their new plans.