VENTURA : Road Projects Settle In for a Long Haul

Every weekday, city construction crews take over Thompson Boulevard in downtown Ventura--digging, drilling and obstructing traffic.

And they aren’t going away anytime soon.

Ventura’s engineering department began construction projects on Thompson Boulevard in April, and city officials say they are not scheduled to finish until the end of October. The project area stretches from Garden Street to Kalorama Street.

From 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., city workers are busy replacing underground water lines and linking all the street’s traffic signals.

“That way, if you hit one green, you can hit all the greens,” explained Mark Watkins, a city engineer.

The traffic signal portion of the project, begun in April and finished three weeks ago, cost the city $330,000 in traffic improvement funds, Watkins said. The water line replacement project started May 9 and will end about Halloween, he said. Funds to cover the $880,000 improvements are coming from residents’ water bills, he said.

Part of the reason the construction will take so long is because crews go on hiatus during the Ventura County Fair--Aug. 17-28--so as not to further clog up already congested streets, he said.

But construction on Thompson Boulevard will not end when the city workers finish their job.

Once that is done, utility crews will begin burying power, telephone and cable lines. The work will begin by the end of the year and will take up to six months to complete, Watkins said.

City workers are also revamping Figueroa Street in downtown Ventura this summer as part of the city’s downtown redevelopment project.

Financed by the city’s redevelopment agency budget, the $285,000 project includes laying designer sidewalks and putting in decorative planters and palm trees, Watkins said.

That project started June 6 and will end the first week in September, he said.