Rain Complicates Highway Repairs : Weather: Unexpected precipitation hampers Caltrans crews. Work on the Ventura Freeway is expected to be completed today.

Asudden downpour on Tuesday impeded Caltrans crews working to repair a sagging stretch of the Ventura Freeway that was undermined by weekend rains, but officials said repairs should be complete by late this afternoon.

The rain also doused employees at the Ventura County Government Center who were forced to search among the buildings for working bathrooms after a water main broke early Tuesday.

The storm, which dumped half an inch of rain on the county, also surprised meteorologists, who had predicted clear skies for today and a warming trend for the week.

“After two weeks of near perfection, I think people ought to cut me just a little bit of slack,” quipped National Weather Service meteorologist Terry Schaeffer. He had predicted that the storm would settle slightly to the east, covering the Sierra Nevada with snow but missing Ventura County.

Tuesday’s storm followed a series of weekend fronts that left more than two inches of rain in many parts of the county. During that rainfall, water rushing beneath two of the three southbound lanes of the Ventura Freeway 1 1/2 miles north of the city of Ventura washed away the packed dirt on which the road was built.

Caltrans closed the two left lanes Monday. But traffic backed up and motorists making U-turns in the median got stuck in the mud, so the California Highway Patrol closed the third lane and rerouted traffic to the old Pacific Coast Highway.

The closure was unnecessary, and the right lane was reopened Monday evening, said Bruce Dyar, manager of the California Department of Transportation in Ventura County.

“I feel the CHP overreacted because the highway should never have been closed,” he said.

Dyar said the shifting dirt left a dip in the roadway about two feet deep that caused the wheels of unsuspecting motorists to leave the pavement. Dyar said he first believed that the sagging was due to a leaking culvert under the road.

But after crews dug a hole in the freeway that was 20 feet deep, 40 to 60 feet long and 12 to 25 feet wide, they found what Dyar believes is a rushing spring.

“That’s what we’re thinking caused it,” he said. “But we had the materials (analysts) look at it and they didn’t give me an answer yet.”

The rain on Tuesday slowed workers who had to use machinery to keep water from filling the hole, he said. The same machinery would otherwise have been used to speed the repair and fill the hole with 1,000 pounds of rock, dirt and other base materials.

Once the hole is filled, Dyar said, the crews will cover it with asphalt.

If future rains cause more settling, Dyar said Caltrans will patch low spots with asphalt.

The rain Tuesday also complicated otherwise routine missions for workers at the County Government Center.

Those in the administration building donned coats and carried umbrellas to cross the courtyard to find bathrooms in the west wing of the Hall of Justice or in the County Jail building.

“It’s cold and it’s wet and it’s crowded,” complained Judy Keohane, a management assistant in the Public Works Agency.

The problems began when an underground water pipe ruptured. “I don’t think it was caused by the weather, but I’m not sure,” said Thomas Womack, chief deputy director of the county General Services Agency.

The ruptured pipe, which was repaired by noon, also slowed court proceedings in the Hall of Justice when Judge Steven Z. Perren, presiding over the sentencing trial of convicted murderer Gregory Scott Smith, ordered longer rest breaks and admonished the jurors to “be prudent” about their coffee consumption.

Assistant Sheriff Richard Bryce reported on the situation to the County Board of Supervisors.

“The good news is that all 436 toilets are working” in the jail building. “The bad news is there is a long line in front of every one.”

* REGIONAL REPORT: Rain snarls commuter traffic. A3

County Rainfall

Here are current rain statistics from the Ventura County Flood Control District.

Rainfall Rainfall Normal rainfall Location since Monday since Oct. 1 to date Camarillo 0.47 5.78 4.99 Casitas Dam 0.55 N/A 8.30 El Rio 0.39 5.77 5.24 Fillmore N/A N/A 7.04 Moorpark 0.63 6.26 5.24 Ojai 0.47 8.64 7.30 Upper Ojai 0.39 9.57 7.77 Oxnard 0.51 6.76 5.01 Piru N/A N/A 5.94 Port Hueneme 0.51 6.16 5.00 Santa Paula N/A N/A 6.37 Simi Valley N/A N/A 4.99 Thousand Oaks 0.39 6.93 5.32 Ventura Govt. Center 0.35 6.20 5.65