Installation of Simi Freeway Median Postponed

Construction of a temporary median divider on a stretch of the Simi Valley Freeway where six fatalities occurred this year will be delayed until the end of the week, and possibly longer, Caltrans officials said Monday.

Transportation officials hope the concrete wall--which is to stretch five miles between Balboa Boulevard and DeSoto Avenue--will be in place by Thanksgiving. The original completion date had been set for next Friday.

Although Modern Alloys of Stanton has already begun putting up road signs as a prelude to installing the barrier, grading work that was scheduled to begin Monday has been postponed at least until Thursday, Caltrans spokeswoman Margie Tiritilli said.

“This is kind of a last-minute contract . . . and he’s had other things to do, so he couldn’t quite get in to grade” on Monday, Tiritilli said.

A collision last week, in which a Pacoima woman died when her car veered across the 43-foot-wide dirt median into oncoming traffic, sent transportation officials scurrying for a temporary partition pending installation of a more permanent concrete barrier that is currently being cast.

“Because of this latest fatality accident we wanted to get something really, really fast,” Tiritilli said.

However, inclement weather could delay the contractor’s work on the project even further, she said. “Ideally he’d like to have it in before Thanksgiving, but we just don’t know at this point,” Tiritilli said. “If rain hits this week, it could get pushed back further. But he’s making this his top priority.”

The 3 1/2-foot-high concrete barrier will be on loan from a freeway-improvement project in San Diego until the more permanent divider can replace it at the beginning of next year.

That divider was ordered in the wake of a five-vehicle crossover accident in January that killed three people and injured four others. Another pileup at the same site left two people dead in September--just two weeks after Caltrans finally awarded Modern Alloys a $476,000 contract to build the barrier.

The additional cost of installing the temporary divider will be tacked onto the contract, but the price tag of the project has not yet been determined, Tiritilli said.

The grading work, to begin Thursday, should take several days but will require no lane closures, officials said.

The installation will take place during overnight hours and will force the closure of the left lane of the westbound side of the freeway.