State OKs Funds to Improve Safety on ‘Blood Alley’ : Traffic: Caltrans rejects concrete barriers but will install center divider warning strips in stretch of Highway 126 to alert drivers.

In a compromise aimed at improving safety on a notorious stretch of road known as Blood Alley, Caltrans on Friday offered to spend $1 million to make accident-prone California 126 near Fillmore less dangerous.

While refusing to spend $3 million on the concrete barriers requested by local leaders, state transportation officials agreed to install raised dots and concrete grooves to alert drivers who wander across the center divider.

“I think maybe the best solution at this point is to put in something to stop people from crossing over,” said Jack Hallin, acting director of Caltrans District 7.

The proposal was unanimously accepted Friday by the Ventura County Transportation Commission, which in December had demanded that the California Department of Transportation reconsider its opposition to installing concrete barriers on the roadway.

Over the past five years, 30 people have died along the winding stretch of California 126 between Ventura and the Los Angeles County line, many of them in head-on accidents. Concerned local officials sought the barriers to prevent cars from drifting into oncoming traffic.

After several meetings with Caltrans, a compromise was reached. The dots and grooves, known as “rumble strips” for the low, growling sound they make when driven over, have proven effective in preventing accidents, Capt. Mike Porrazzo of the California Highway Patrol told the commission.

Porrazzo, who patrolled U.S. 101 in Santa Barbara before becoming area commander in charge of California 126 in September, said the strips are better at improving overall road safety than concrete barriers.

“I guess I don’t take a real positive view of center dividers because they cause more trouble than they’re worth,” Porrazzo said. “They may prevent a few fatalities, but if you take a look at the center dividers you’ll see a lot of black marks where cars hit them.”

Porrazzo said since taking command of California 126 he has dispatched a series of special patrols to cite speeders and unsafe drivers and to reduce accidents in other ways.

“I think we’re showing more of a presence out there,” he said.

The rumble strips should be installed within the next year and a half, Hallin said.

Roger Campbell, a Fillmore councilman who has led the charge to install concrete barriers on California 126, said Porrazzo convinced him that the rumble strips are an acceptable alternative for improving road safety.

“It’s not concrete, but it is a barrier,” Campbell said. “It is a sound barrier and a vibration barrier.

“My personal feeling is if they can do this in the next year, I think it is the best of all possible worlds. If it doesn’t work, I’ll probably be stomping my feet again.”