San Diego

The California Department of Transportation will post security guards to reduce crime and vandalism in abandoned houses along the path of the Interstate 15 expansion, the department announced Friday.

Guards will patrol the section of City Heights that parallels 40th Street, which has become a notorious high-crime area in recent months, said Jesus Garcia, Caltrans’ district director.

Caltrans has purchased many of the homes in the area, and plans to eventually build a 2.2-mile stretch of Interstate 15 where the houses now stand. Since the houses have been abandoned, many have become havens for drug dealers or targets of arsonists.