Chalk Hill Project : Earthmoving a Dirty Word to Neighbors

Earthquakes aside, the earth is really moving these days in Woodland Hills.

A million cubic yards of it are being trucked from the community’s most prominent hilltop to a dump in Agoura.

The $4-million dirt-hauling project is clearing the way for a 663-unit apartment project to be built atop historic Chalk Hill, long considered the eastern gateway to Woodland Hills.

A fleet of 50 trucks with trailers has been nibbling non-stop at the hill since June. Each truck makes 12 trips a day to the dump, carrying about 16 tons per trip.

Workers at the Ventura Boulevard hillside, between Winnetka and DeSoto avenues, say they have reached the halfway point with the excavation project and will be finished before the rainy season arrives this winter.

Woodland Hills residents and office workers say they will be happy when both milestones are reached--the departure of the trucks and the arrival of the rain, to wash away the layer of powdery dust settled along the truck route.

“With as much dirt as they’ve moved, I believe they’re personally responsible for the earthquake,” quipped Debi Smith, a receptionist who works in a three-story office building overlooking the excavation site.

Marcia Hannah, a loan processor at a savings and loan two blocks from the grading project, said her office shakes 600 times a day--each time a truck loaded with dirt passes by.

Most people along the truck route have given up trying to keep their autos clean, said Erna Beck, an accountant whose office building is also a short distance from the site.

“But the guys working there are really very good at what they do. One time they accidently dumped some dirt in the street and they were right there five minutes later, cleaning it up,” Beck said.

Andy Eisenstein, a sales representative for an electronics company, said noise from the dirt-moving project can be heard in his office across Ventura Boulevard from the grading site.

“They toot a horn to signal the trucks to move up and get loaded,” Eisenstein said. “It’s like a duck factory out there.”

Grading superintendent Bill Allencorn said his 20 ground workers and 50 drivers have taken steps to keep such nuisances to a minimum.

Conveyor Belts Used

They use conveyor belts that move dirt without stirring up dust on the site and they give each loaded truck a shower bath to control dust before it pulls onto the boulevard, he said. They also periodically wash off the street, he added.

“We put a lot of effort in keeping the trucks clean,” Allencorn said Monday. “We have a water truck clean the street as best we can at 6 every morning. We have two flagmen controlling traffic for safety.”

The adobe-like soil is being welcomed by Los Angeles County sanitation officials who operate the Calabasas Landfill in Agoura. They say they are using the dirt to cover household garbage dumped at the 416-acre facility.

The county waives its normal dumping fee of $16 per uncovered ton for such dirt, said Stephen R. Maguin, assistant chief of solid waste management for the county Sanitation Districts. If that fee were assessed for the Chalk Hill loads, it would total an estimated $153,600 per day.

Once the Chalk Hill hauling ends, construction work will begin on the $70-million apartment project. Developer Jay Wilton has announced plans to turn the site into a New Mexico-like mesa that will have a dozen terraced buildings resembling Santa Fe adobes.