45 Freeway Bridges to Be Braced : Roads: The overpasses on major county thoroughfares will be retrofitted before the end of 1995 as part of a speeded-up statewide effort.

Forty-five bridges on Ventura County’s major freeways are slated for seismic retrofitting by the end of 1995 as part of a hastened statewide effort to keep bridges from crumbling during earthquakes.

Responding to the collapse of six major roadways in Los Angeles in the Jan. 17 earthquake, state officials have announced they will speed up repairs to 1,000 elevated highway sections singled out as most vulnerable to damage after the 1989 Loma Prieta quake.

All of Ventura County’s 322 highway bridges withstood the Northridge quake, including eight recently reinforced single-column models, which are considered particularly susceptible to damage.

Work has already begun on several of the additional 45 county bridges targeted for retrofitting under the statewide plan. More bridges may be added to the list in June, when Caltrans completes the screening of an additional 1,500 bridges throughout the state.

“This is a fluid project that is still being developed,” California Department of Transportation spokesman Jim Drago said. “Our idea is to identify the bridges and push them through as quickly as we can.”

The retrofitting work often involves digging around the footing of a bridge, wrapping it with steel and concrete and hooking cables to bridge decks to keep them from caving in during quakes.

To speed up the process, state administrators plan to ask the Legislature to weed out unnecessary regulatory barriers. They will also permit Caltrans to hire outside contractors to help with retrofit engineering and design.

Ventura city engineer Nazir Lalani said he was concerned that the retrofitting project might disrupt long-term plans for more extensive freeway repairs.

“We’ve got projects scheduled for two, three or four years from now, and I’d be concerned if they came and said we’re going to do the retrofitting now and the rest later,” Lalani said. “If you start messing with a project like that, it could really cause problems.

Drago said Caltrans was eager to avoid any disruption of scheduled projects.

“We’re going to look at each case and consider what is happening and what is planned,” Drago said. “We’re going to try to use some common sense on this process.”

Dean Dunphy, secretary of the state’s Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, will oversee the plan at the state level. An ombudsman will be appointed to work with local governments to streamline construction.

Funding for the retrofitting project, estimated at more than $1 billion statewide, will come from the state highway account, which is supported primarily by the gasoline tax.

Ventura County’s 924-mile freeway system escaped the Jan. 17 earthquake with little damage.

Highway workers quickly repaired damage to the Simi Valley Freeway, grinding down or repaving buckled portions of the ramps leading to the freeway from surface streets in the city.

One freeway overpass at Sunset Hills Boulevard in Thousand Oaks was closed briefly after the earthquake while Caltrans workers inspected cracks in the roadway, said Dave Servaes, Caltrans regional manager for Ventura County.

The chipping was found to be superficial and the pass was reopened.

Servaes said most of the bridges requiring retrofitting were built before standards were toughened.

“These are older bridges,” Servaes said. “Now when we have a project, we build it to include all the latest technology.”

Bridge Repairs

Under the accelerated state plan, 45 elevated highway sections in Ventura County are slated for seismic retrofitting by the end of 1995. Work is already under way at some of the sites.

VENTURA FREEWAY

Borchard Road overpass, Thousand Oaks

Wendy Drive overpass, Thousand Oaks

Central Avenue overpass, Camarillo

Almond Drive overpass, Oxnard

Ventura Road ramp, Oxnard

Santa Clara River bridge, between Oxnard and Ventura

Montalvo Drive overpass

Telephone Road underpass, Ventura

Ventura-Santa Paula Freeway connector

Lemon Grove Avenue overpass, Ventura

San Jon Road overpass, Ventura

Ventura Avenue underpass, Ventura

West Ventura overpass, Ventura

Ventura River overpass, Ventura

West Main Street underpass, Ventura

Seacliff overpass, near Ventura

PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY/CALIFORNIA 1

3rd Street overpass, Oxnard

Camarillo bridge overpass, Oxnard

Frontage Road overpass, Oxnard

Pacific Coast Highway-Ventura Freeway connector, Oxnard

MOORPARK FREEWAY/CALIFORNIA 23

Santa Clara River overpass, Fillmore

Avenida de las Flores overpass, Thousand Oaks

SIMI VALLEY FREEWAY/CALIFORNIA 118

California 118-Santa Paula Freeway connector, Ventura

Santa Clara River overpass, Saticoy

Kuehner Drive underpass, Simi Valley

SANTA PAULA FREEWAY/CALIFORNIA 126

Kimball Road overpass, Ventura

Saticoy Avenue overpass, Ventura

Victoria Avenue overpass, Ventura

Main Street underpass, Santa Paula

Sespe Creek bridge

Piru Creek bridge

OJAI FREEWAY/CALIFORNIA 33

Ojai Freeway-Ventura Freeway connector

Garden Street overpass, Ventura

Main Street ramp, Ventura

MARICOPA HIGHWAY/CALIFORNIA 33

LOS PADRES NATIONAL FOREST

McDonald Creek bridge

Matilija Creek bridge

Tule Creek bridge

Sespe Creek bridge

Castle Creek bridge

Round Spring Creek bridge

Corral Canyon Creek bridge

Apache Canyon Creek bridge

CALIFORNIA 34

Lewis Road overpass, Camarillo

CALIFORNIA 150

Coyote Creek bridge

Ventura River bridge

Source: State Department of Transportation