CAMARILLO : Construction Continues on Santa Rosa Road

Construction on the 60-year-old Santa Rosa Road east of Camarillo continued Monday as crews began a six-month-long effort to relocate sewer, water and other utilities lines.

The utility lines are being relocated as part of an overall make-over for the thoroughfare, said W. Butch Britt, Ventura County deputy director of public works. The new design will smooth out and increase the overall safety of the two-lane road, Britt said. Construction work, which began in 1990, is now in the last of three phases.

Britt said the finished road will offer drivers better vision and will have an eight-foot-wide paved shoulder on each side. Additionally, land for a possible expansion of the roadway to four lanes was purchased in anticipation of increased future use.

About 10,000 motorists a day use the road that runs between Camarillo and Moorpark.

Ventura-based Nye and Nelson Inc. is the general contractor for the second and third phase of the $5-million county project.

“It was interesting digging up some parts of the road,” said Ruric Nye, a spokesman for the construction firm. “We were finding materials that were used on road construction during the Depression era.”

Although the project is still on schedule with an expected completion date of June, 1995, work on one section located east of Camarillo was stopped late last year after grading work uncovered what archeological specialists believe is a Chumash Indian cremation urn. The urn contained one human tooth and other human bone fragments.

Britt said that negotiations between the county and Native American representatives from a state commission are continuing and no decision as to whether the construction design at the site will be altered has been made.

In the meantime, Britt said that construction crews will continue to work on other areas of the roadway not believed to be archeologically sensitive.