Incomplete Resurfacing Project Blamed for Rocky Road

Dear Street Smart:

I have solved a problem. I now take a seasick pill before driving on California 33 between Main Street and Shell Road.

This is the worst resurfacing job that I have seen in my years of driving.

I hope the contractor has not been paid for the job.

Verne J. Hodson, Oak View

Dear Reader:

Hopefully, you can put those seasickness pills back in your medicine chest soon.

State Department of Transportation inspectors agree with your assessment of the resurfacing job along the stretch of California 33. They say some repairs must be made before they will sign off on the $1.7-million project, which actually stretches from the Ventura Freeway to Canada Larga Road.

The contractor, Southern Pacific Milling of Oxnard, confirms that the project is incomplete.

Members of the operating engineers union are on strike, and the job cannot be finished until the strike is settled.

“It’s in usable condition, but it doesn’t meet the criteria for smoothness,” said Phil Gregoire, the firm’s general superintendent. “The corrective measures would have been done if it wasn’t for the strike.”

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Dear Street Smart:

When are they going to repave Royal Avenue in Simi Valley between Madera and Tapo Canyon roads?

There are potholes all the way down both sides of the road. They tear up tires, and people try to avoid them all the time. That is dangerous and can cause accidents, when people are paying more attention to the potholes than they are to other drivers.

Ron Henry, Simi Valley

Dear Reader:

Good question. But this is another case where striking union workers have slowed a public project.

City planners began resurfacing Royal Avenue in July, but forces beyond their control have thwarted their efforts. When the operating engineers union went on strike two months ago, a number of public projects came to a halt.

“They’ve virtually shut down all of the construction jobs in Southern California,” said Bill Golubics, an engineer with the city of Simi Valley. “We don’t know when work will resume.

“Our original plan was to have all of the paving done along Royal Avenue before school started, but that certainly did not happen.”

Union officials would not discuss the ongoing dispute, which not surprisingly centers on salary and benefits.

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Dear Street Smart:

There are so many new homes off Avenida de los Arboles in Thousand Oaks that drivers along Westlake Boulevard heading toward the Ventura Freeway use Westlake Boulevard like it’s the freeway.

There is a sign on Westlake Boulevard that is supposed to keep drivers under 45 m.p.h., but no one pays any attention to it. The speeding drivers create a hazard and make it dangerous.

Why don’t the police do something to enforce the speed limit on Westlake Boulevard leading toward the freeway?

Kay La Force, Thousand Oaks

Dear Reader:

The men and women whose job it is to slow down traffic and protect the public from lead-footed motorists acknowledge that speeding along Westlake Boulevard and other main thoroughfares is not uncommon.

Even though traffic officers in Thousand Oaks patrol that part of Westlake Boulevard routinely, it is not conducive to staking out the area, Deputy Craig Smith said.

“The design of that highway does not lend itself to a traffic officer sitting there for speed enforcement,” Smith said. “There’s really no place for an officer to park and watch traffic.”

There are other factors contributing to the lack of prolonged enforcement along Westlake Boulevard, however.

“Because of the geography, radio communications are weak at best,” Smith said. “So the tendency at that area is to be very careful because officers can’t reach dispatch.”

Nonetheless, Smith added, the 12 traffic cops patrolling the city will ticket speeders when they go too fast.