Detour Route’s Businesses Won’t Miss the Hassles

Moe Disesso, 70, a Hollywood animal trainer, said his business went to pieces when the freeway did.

Disesso, who also sells Native American crafts at Moe’s Trading Post (which is at his home) along The Old Road, saw his peaceful road become a congested detour of the Golden State Freeway after the Jan. 17 Northridge earthquake.

“You don’t know how miserable we’ve been here,” the Newhall resident said. “Every night we can’t sleep. Every night someone is blowing their horn, getting in fights, cops are blowing their sirens. . . . Something is always going on all night.”

Disesso was just one of the many Santa Clarita-area residents happy to see the southbound lanes of the freeway reopen Tuesday afternoon, nearly a month ahead of schedule.

Disesso said his movie animal training business came to a halt because a fence was placed across his driveway and companies refused to make deliveries through a temporary entrance.

He says his trading post has done “no business at all” since the earthquake because potential customers experienced the same problems.

The Gavin Canyon bridge on the Golden State Freeway just north of the Antelope Valley Freeway interchange collapsed during the magnitude 6.8 temblor. Caltrans renovated 3 1/2 miles of The Old Road, creating a detour that could handle about half of the Golden State’s normal traffic flow.

Officials and commuters praised Caltrans for its speedy work in providing an alternate route, but those who suddenly found themselves in the middle of the construction were much less enthusiastic when access to their homes and businesses proved difficult or impossible.

Edwin Orantes can almost breathe a sigh of relief.

He manages the Carrows restaurant near where Calgrove Boulevard joins the Golden State Freeway. Concrete barriers have been directing freeway traffic away from the eatery and onto the detour. The restaurant was only a quarter full at mid-morning Tuesday before the southbound lanes reopened.

“I’m pretty excited,” he said. “It’s going to help us.” But Orantes said he won’t feel completely at ease until the barriers across Calgrove Boulevard are removed later this week, allowing traffic on the Golden State Freeway and The Old Road access to his restaurant.

Since the quake, motorists who wanted to get to Orantes’ restaurant had to exit the freeway a mile north of the restaurant and take surface streets to the winding two-lane road that leads to the eatery. Orantes said most people apparently didn’t want to go to all the trouble, causing the restaurant to lose up to 75% of its business and lay off about half its employees.

But employees at some businesses said their worries aren’t over yet. Judy Schuelke, office manager of the Oak Tree Gun Club, said she worries how customers will get to the shooting range at the southern end of the detour until The Old Road is back to normal. Southbound motorists have access to the range--and to several other homes and businesses in the area--only by exiting through a hole cut in a fence on the freeway shoulder, or by going several miles south to Roxford Street in Sylmar, then taking The Old Road back north to a bridge that leads to the properties.

“It’s hard to tell someone who’s never been here . . . to pull off the freeway through the orange cones and go through a hole in the fence,” she said.

Schuelke said the club is only doing about 25% to 30% of its normal business and is still waiting for a Small Business Administration loan to help pay off bills.

And the damage may be permanent at Calgrove Kennels at the detour’s north end. The kennel closed after the earthquake when noise and fumes from traffic on The Old Road threatened the animals’ health. Drivers carrying dog food, propane and milk also refused to make deliveries to the kennel because of the sudden and dangerous turns required to get in and out.

Mike Lovingood, who said in an interview three weeks ago that he is not sure if he will reopen his kennel, declined comment Tuesday on the freeway’s reopening.

“You can’t print what I have to say. . . . I’m angry,” he said.