SIMI VALLEY : 2-Mile Barrier Is Installed on Freeway Median

Hoping to prevent dangerous and often deadly crossover accidents, Caltrans has installed a concrete barrier along a well-traveled stretch of the Simi Valley Freeway.

The two-mile barrier runs from Kadota Street to Kuehner Drive and is made up of 20-foot sections placed on the dirt median between eastbound and westbound lanes. Each section weighs about four tons.

Gary Ethier, resident engineer in Caltrans’ Moorpark office, said the barriers hook together to protect motorists from straying into oncoming lanes. They have also been installed in two accident-prone areas of the San Fernando Valley, he said.

Simi Valley Councilman Bill Davis on Wednesday applauded the safety feature, which was installed late Friday and early Saturday.

“These things, if you hit them, they have the tendency to kick you back into your lane,” Davis said. “They’re a lifesaver, no doubt about that.”

City officials lobbied Caltrans to install a barrier on the freeway after a 1989 accident in which a Moorpark boy and his father were killed when their car was struck head-on by a trailer that had become dislodged from another vehicle and crossed the median.

That accident occurred west of Kuehner Drive, where traffic levels have still not increased enough to justify installing a barrier, Ethier said.

Caltrans spokeswoman Pat Reid said installing the barrier cost $185,000.