VENTURA : Bridge May Open to Traffic Within 2 Weeks

The Camarillo construction company repairing the Main Street Bridge in Ventura is ahead of schedule and could complete initial work on the storm-damaged structure and open the crossing to traffic within two weeks, officials said Sunday.

Armed with a $68,000 city contract, workers from J & H Engineering have been strengthening the overpass since early this month. Heavy rain crippled the bridge in March, when the downstream side of the Ventura River crossing buckled and dipped more than five feet.

City officials first estimated the work would be done sometime in May. But Howard Janotta, who owns the Camarillo-based company, said Sunday that his crew is ahead of schedule.

“The water just ate this thing alive,” Janotta said. “There was just way too much.”

The city “is going to put up some fencing on the south side, but we should be finished within 10 days or so,” Janotta said. “Within two weeks it should be open to traffic.”

Ventura Public Works Director Ron Calkins said one lane of the two-lane bridge would be opened and temporary signals would guide traffic through while another company completes more extensive repairs along the downstream side.

Those repairs, which will cost almost $1 million, will probably not be finished until October or November, Calkins told the City Council late last month.

The closure has frustrated area bicyclists, who have had to cross the river via the train tracks or the Ventura Freeway for the last several weeks. Janotta said he has turned away as many as 100 cyclists every day since repair work began.

But the closure signs and barbed-wire fencing blocking the roadway have not intimidated some bike riders. On Sunday, Steve LaChaine and his friend whizzed past construction crews fixing the bridge.

“We just had to do it this time because we would have had to be mentally hospitalized if we didn’t,” LaChaine said, as he and his friend climbed over the fence blocking the south end of the bridge. “This loop is just mandatory for bikers.”

Most cyclists, however, obey the closure signs, albeit grudgingly.

“Whenever we come here, that’s where we head,” said cyclist Debbie Dear of Santa Paula, pointing to the park across the Ventura River. “I’ll be glad when it’s opened so we can go back.”