PORT HUENEME : Merchants Protest Closing of Bridge

Despite merchants’ concern over a possible drop in business, the Port Hueneme City Council will close a two-lane bridge over a flood control channel along Channel Islands Boulevard.

“A number of Port Hueneme businesses are here representing 10% to 25% of the city’s sales tax revenue,” Michael Turner, one of the owners of Oliveira Plaza, told the council Wednesday. “This may not kill the goose that laid the golden egg, but I think it is going to cripple it.”

The City Council decided several years ago to close the 30-foot-wide bridge because of a number of serious traffic accidents. At Wednesday night’s meeting, the council announced that it will continue with its plans to close the bridge located 600 feet from Victoria Avenue and Channel Islands Boulevard, but no date has been set.

A new 50-foot-wide bridge about 500 feet east of the existing bridge will serve Oliveira Plaza and the new Mandalay Village Marketplace when it is opened. The cost of that bridge is about $69,000, which is being split between the city and the owners of the two shopping centers.

To appease the Oliveira merchants, the council voted unanimously to place signs that would help direct traffic to the plaza.

“Traffic stacks up across the bridge, and the cars’ fannies stick into eastbound traffic,” City Manager Dick Velthoen said. There have “been a number of accidents and one death. It does not meet traffic engineering standards.”

Closing the old bridge will make it inconvenient for customers to enter and exit the shopping center via the new bridge, said Tenie Theobald, president of the Oliveira merchants association. “Once customers get in, they can’t get out easily.”

She predicted that customers will make U-turns at Victoria and Channel Islands to gain access to the shopping center.

“It’s confusing to our customers,” Theobald said. “While signs will help, there are going to be people who are confused, and more accidents will happen.”