It’s a Hard Road to Hoe in the Cold

Somewhere in Santa Clarita there is a road contractor cursing at the night skies--and it has nothing to do with losing a bet on the Super Bowl.

The nighttime temperatures in northern Los Angeles County for the past week have been too cold to place the final layer of asphalt on a new mile-long stretch of the Antelope Valley Freeway in Santa Clarita.

The final pavement work is the only thing blocking the opening of the additional southbound lane between Lost Canyon and Sand Canyon roads--a stretch of freeway that serves about 75,000 motorists a day.

For workers to lay the asphalt, ambient temperatures must be at least 50 degrees or the asphalt will become hard and unpliable, Caltrans officials said. Recent nighttime temperatures in the area have dipped to about 30 degrees.

“The asphalt will not adhere and will break down too fast,” Caltrans engineer Alex Morelan said. “It becomes brittle.”

The cold spell is just the latest roadblock thrown up by Mother Nature in front of the roadwork. The project was supposed to have been completed in December.

It was delayed by rain.

Caltrans spokeswoman Margie Tiritilli said only two days of work are required to put the finishing touches on the lane. Daytime temperatures in Santa Clarita have reached a pleasant 69 degrees recently, but Caltrans prohibits daytime freeway work because it would disrupt normal commuter traffic. “It’s really frustrating because the contractor can’t get in there to finish the work,” she said.

But immediate relief does appear, well, down the road at best. Forecasters predict that nighttime temperatures will hover around the mid-20s in coming days.