Lethal Section of I-5 to Get Guardrail : Highway safety: The $1.8-million project began along a 13-mile stretch of the freeway near Gorman. Six people have died in head-on collisions there this year.

Caltrans began a $1.8-million dollar project this week to install a center guardrail on the Golden State Freeway along a stretch of road in northern Los Angeles County where six motorists have died in head-on collisions this year.

The steel barriers will be placed along a 13-mile stretch of the freeway going north from Templin Highway near Castaic Lake to Hungry Valley Road near Gorman.

Caltrans spokesman Thomas Knox said actual construction could begin any day. Contractors began stockpiling rails to be used for the project at a Templin Highway storage yard Monday.

Authorities said the Interstate 5 project, which was approved by the state more than a year ago, is expected to be completed by February.

“This is good news because of the accidents we’ve been having,” said Capt. Terry Horan, head of the California Highway Patrol’s Newhall district, which includes the area where the barrier will be installed.

“This will make it safer,” Horan said. “The head-on collisions demonstrated the need for a barrier. There were fatals; there were accidents where a blown tire could send cars into the other side.”

The four northbound and four southbound lanes of the freeway--the major artery linking the Southland with the San Joaquin Valley--are divided by guardrails or canyons throughout the Santa Clarita Valley. But the separation ends from Templin Highway north to California 138 above Hungry Valley. Along this stretch, the northbound and southbound lanes are separated only by a 36-foot-wide gravel median that dips in the center.

The guardrail project is part of a statewide plan to add safety barriers along the entire length of Interstate 5 as increased population and traffic dictates, officials said.

CHP officers said that in recent years there have been numerous accidents along the stretch that were caused when cars crossed the center strip into oncoming traffic. Since April, six people have been killed in four separate accidents involving head-on collisions.

In addition to the deaths, the accidents often cause massive traffic snarls on both sides of the freeway--the state’s major north-south artery. On Aug. 5, a head-on collision in Sunday evening traffic near Templin Highway left one motorist dead and delayed weekend travelers more than two hours.

CHP Officer Steve Cortes, who has patrolled the stretch through open, mountainous country, said the area is heavily traveled by trucks and motorists making lengthy drives to or from Northern California. He said that several of the accidents he has investigated there involved drivers who fell asleep and drifted into oncoming traffic.

“It’s going to prevent a lot of serious accidents,” Cortes said of the new center guardrail.

Cortes said that once while chasing a speeding car along the stretch, his patrol car blew a tire and veered across the center median and all four oncoming lanes. It was 3 a.m. and traffic was light. He and his partner came out of it shaken but unscathed.