Road’s Closure Alters Commute : Traffic: Topanga Canyon Boulevard closes at 7:30 a.m. for storm damage repair. Some face 1 1/2-hour detour.

Motorists in Topanga Canyon are learning to get an early start on their workday.

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Not because they want to miss the morning commuter rush--but because they want to catch it.

If Los Angeles-bound canyon residents have not squeezed past a pair of major washouts on Topanga Canyon Boulevard by 7:30 a.m. they have to wait eight hours before they get another chance.

Otherwise, they face a 35-mile detour through the San Fernando Valley that adds an extra 1 1/2 hours to the drive to Downtown.

Construction crews struggling to repair damage from the Jan. 10 rainstorm are shutting the canyon road to traffic between 7:30 a.m and 3:30 p.m. daily. The closures are expected to last another 15 days--although workers warn that flooding from new storms could extend the project.

Topanga residents Thursday seemed to be taking the inconvenience in stride.

Drivers lined up as early as 6:30 a.m. and waited patiently to take turns using the single open lane around a 15-foot washout south of Grand View Drive and a larger one farther south at the canyon’s S curves.

As the 7:30 a.m. shutdown approached, California Highway Patrol Officer Fernando Martinez hurriedly waved latecomers through as workers hired for the $2-million project stood by and counted down the minutes.

One happy motorist stopped long enough to reward Martinez with a huge cellophane-wrapped fruit basket, which he stowed in the center of the street behind an orange traffic cone.

Other drivers could be seen mouthing the word “thanks” as they drove by.

“The storm changed all of our commutes,” said resident Mark Mihelic, who waited 10 minutes to get past one washout. It now takes his wife, Adrienne, two hours to travel to USC through the San Fernando Valley instead of the usual 45 minutes via Pacific Coast Highway, he said.

Martinez allowed the end of the line to pass before blocking off the boulevard with a “Road Closed” sign.

“I think most people got the word about the closure schedule. The traffic just seemed to dry up right as we closed the road,” said his partner, Officer Ben Moya.

Workers from two construction companies handling the repair job for Caltrans swarmed onto the roadway and immediately began unloading huge culvert pipes near Grand View Drive as the last car in line disappeared from view.

At the S curves, another crew began dumping 10-ton boulders over the side of the road to shore up the roadway there after the cars passed.

Motorists arriving at Martinez’s roadblock after the 7:30 a.m. cutoff seemed philosophical about the closure--and the long detour through the San Fernando Valley.

Topanga resident Jane Rollins was the first to have to turn around. She was attempting to drive to a store to buy some anti-itch ointment for her 11-year-old daughter, Tami.

Like many others living in areas that were flooded last week, the girl had come down with poison oak from the plant’s irritants left behind in the mud by receding waters.

“It takes an hour and a half to get to Santa Monica through the Valley when normally it’s less than a 30-minute drive,” Rollins said.

“Yesterday it took two hours for the high school car pool to get from Topanga School down to Pacific Coast Highway to catch the school bus,” she said.

Tami looked uncomfortable and glum when Rollins said with a shrug: “Well, it looks like we’ll have to forget the Benadryl.”

Caltrans spokesman Russ Snyder said the 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. closure will continue daily until the work is finished.

“Residents up there are real troupers,” Snyder said. “There is inconvenience there and we appreciate them rearranging their schedules.”

Along with canyon dwellers, Caltrans engineers will be anxiously watching the skies the next few days, Snyder said.

Workers are prepared to labor through the rain. But new flooding could undo what they have accomplished since Monday.

“The storm is a wild card,” Snyder said. “It could throw a monkey wrench in everything.”