THOUSAND OAKS : City to Fund Wall at Mobile Home Park

The Thousand Oaks City Council will help fund construction of a concrete wall to protect a mobile-home park from cars that careen off the highway.

State Department of Transportation officials had said Tuesday that they would build a guardrail along the stretch of the Ventura Freeway.

And the council gave preliminary approval Tuesday night to a plan to add enough money to the state funds so a wall can be built.

Residents of the mobile-home park, located just north of the freeway between the Hampshire Road and Rancho Road exits in Thousand Oaks, have been asking for a wall for at least 13 years.

They renewed their fight for a barrier after a car carrying a woman and her 21-month-old son careened off the road Sept. 3 and hit an unoccupied mobile home.

“We’re happy that they’re going to chip in some extra money so we can get a concrete barrier, which is really what we want,” said Walter Tujague, a resident of the park.

City Public Works Director John Clement said a 1,850-foot concrete barrier would cost about $300,000, compared with $200,000 for a metal guardrail and $250,000 for a sturdier guardrail with three beams.