Topanga Is a 24-Hour Road Again : Traffic: Three-week closure of Topanga Canyon Boulevard from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. caused lengthy detours for commuters. Caltrans is praised for its quick work.

Ending a three-week nightmare of early morning commuting for Topanga residents, Topanga Canyon Boulevard reopens to 24-hour through traffic tonight.

The road has been closed to residents for nearly eight hours daily--from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.--the time allotted for construction crews to work on $2-million worth of repairs necessary because of damage from the Jan. 10 rainstorm.

The closure caused considerable hardship for commuters, whose drive to Downtown Los Angeles became a 35-mile detour through the San Fernando Valley.

Residents traveling to the Westside were forced to take the not-so-user-friendly Tuna Canyon Road, which is steep, windy and narrow.

Topanga business owners and employees commuting into the canyon also suffered, but are elated that the project has been completed so quickly.

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Lucile Yaney, owner of the Inn of the Seventh Ray restaurant and a 20-year Topangan, noted that when her employees were even two minutes late to where the road was blocked off at 7:30 a.m., “Caltrans wouldn’t let them in and they’d have to go all the way around into the Valley to get here.” Initially, Yaney said, she closed the restaurant to clean up flood damage, then decided to stay closed until the road reopened.

“We can’t complain,” she said. “About 10 years ago when we had a storm that washed away the road as bad as this, it took (Caltrans) three or four months to fix it. That really ruined businesses up here.”

Caltrans spokeswoman Margie Tiritilli said all four lanes of the road will reopen Thursday, when guardrail installations and resurfacing should be completed.

Five sections of the road were washed out during the storm along a 2.5-mile stretch just north of Pacific Coast Highway to Grand View. Under emergency authority granted by Gov. Pete Wilson, Caltrans hired two construction companies to expedite the work.

“Chalk one up for the public sector,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, whose district includes Topanga.

“I got to tell you, I did not believe that Caltrans could do this in three weeks,” he added. The eastern half of Topanga Boulevard had nothing under it. They had to build a whole new foundation.”