Widening of Highway 126 Enters the Final Phase

By NICK GREEN

April 27, 1996 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

The end of the road is in sight for “Blood Alley” on California 126, Ventura County’s most infamous stretch of highway.

A groundbreaking ceremony Friday at Fillmore’s Central Park marked the beginning of a $7-million project to widen the 4.7-mile section of California 126 between Fillmore and Piru from two lanes to four.

The scheduled December 1998 completion will end the final phase of a project to widen the entire 23-mile section of California 126 in Ventura County from Santa Paula to the Los Angeles County line.

Moreover, Friday’s bash brings to a conclusion years of tenacious lobbying for road improvements that, local officials hope, will greatly reduce fatal vehicle accidents on the heavily traveled highway.

For Santa Clara Valley residents who drive the highway every day, the project is long overdue, said Carl Barringer, chairman of the 20-year-old Highway 126 Improvement Assn.

“I have a daughter-in-law that drives every day from Santa Paula to Piru,” he said. “For 17 years I’ve just kept my fingers crossed she’s going to make it with her two daughters in the back.”

Many haven’t.

California Highway Patrol figures show that between 1990 and 1994, 34 people died on California 126. In comparison, 35 deaths occurred during the same period on the Ventura Freeway, where daily traffic volume is as much as five times higher.

During one particularly grisly seven-month period in 1984, 22 people died in mostly head-on collisions, Barringer said. Seven traffic fatalities occurred on the highway last year.

About half of all deaths are alcohol-related.

“With four lanes you’ve got a better chance to avoid an accident when you’ve got a drunk driver on the other side of the road,” Barringer said.

“Blood Alley,” which lies largely within the boundaries of the project that began Friday, is the most notorious stretch of all. Fatalities there are more than twice the state average, according to state records.

Despite the toll, critics of the highway encountered years of delays ranging from a governor reluctant to spend more money on highways to cash being diverted for emergency roadwork because of the Northridge earthquake. Many wondered if they would ever see the finish line for a project that will cost a total of $44 million.

“It’s a real milestone,” said Christopher Stephens, manager of planning and highway programs for the Ventura County Transportation Commission. “The safety issue is what made this project come about. If this project were solely about congestion, for instance, this project would have been further down our priority list.”

But traffic has undoubtedly increased over the years as urbanization encroaches upon the valley’s citrus groves and rural communities.

In 1985, an average of 13,500 vehicles passed through Fillmore daily, said Nick Jones, Caltrans vehicle monitoring coordinator. Today, that figure has almost doubled to 23,500.

The character of the road has changed as well.

Today it’s no longer a rural road winding its way through sleepy communities. It’s a commuter route with Santa Clarita Valley residents charging through on their way to Santa Barbara and vice versa. Tourists en route to Las Vegas from Santa Barbara County seeking to avoid the crush of Los Angeles Basin freeways share the road with cumbersome trucks piled high with produce.

On average, weekday traffic is 10% higher than on the weekends, the reverse of a decade ago, Jones said.

But driving the highway any time of the week can be a dangerous, according to those well-acquainted with California 126.

“I’ve had a couple of close calls myself,” Barringer said. “You just don’t drive it at night if you can avoid it. It’s a tricky section of road that’s gradually being tamed.”

Several tactics aimed at reducing the road’s dangers have been instituted over the years.

In 1984, signs urging motorists to drive with their headlights on during the day were erected.

In 1985, the CHP received special dispensation from then Assembly Speaker Willie Brown to begin using radar along California 126 to enforce the speed limit, Barringer said.

Within a year, traffic tickets soared and fatalities decreased 62.5%, Barringer said.

Last month, the installation of raised dots known as “rumble strips” was completed along the center of already widened stretches of highway, said Fred Young, Caltrans’ resident engineer in Fillmore. The devices are designed to alert drivers that their vehicle is drifting into the oncoming lane.

The same devices will eventually be installed along the highway’s entire length. The $1-million project is a compromise between residents, who wanted $3 million spent on concrete barriers, and Caltrans, which resisted the proposal partly because the dividers would have limited access along the corridor.

Meanwhile, as safety increases with every improvement, civic leaders are hoping traffic will too. After years of economic development complacency, the Santa Clara Valley is beginning to tout its charms to tourists and develop the amenities that will attract them.

Dolores Day, founder of the highway’s improvement association and a Chamber of Commerce employee, is among those who see the economic benefits of a safer highway.

“Four-laning the road is definitely going to bring people in,” she said.

The 14-mile stretch from Ventura to Santa Paula was built in the 1960s, the first stage of what was envisioned as a freeway stretching to Interstate 5. A lack of money meant the remainder of the proposed high-speed expressway was never built.

Ventura County is one of the few counties in California without a sales tax set aside for highway improvements, Stephens said. Consequently, the county must patiently await the state’s largess.

A short four-lane stretch through Fillmore aside, the next roadway widening project from Hallock Driveeast of Santa Paula to Hall Road wasn’t completed until 1985. The $6.3-million route covered a mere 3.8 miles, but eliminated the dangerous Dead Man’s Curve that had claimed many lives.

Completion of the 4.5-mile segment from Hall Road to Fillmore’s A Street, or Highway 23, occurred in May 1991. The $13 million project caused business to temporarily drop 10% to 35% for stores with highway frontage and plenty of grumbling from owners.

But with the entire highway widened from Santa Paula to Fillmore, accidents and fatalities dropped, officials said.

Similar results are anticipated when the latest project is completed. Spring 1994 saw a 2.7-mile stretch improved from Powell Road to Center Street in Piru at a cost of $6.4 million. And $11.4 million worth of work is presently underway on the 5.4 miles from Center Street to the county line. That portion is scheduled for completion in December 1997.

This will leave only a proposed $21 million improvement project on the Los Angeles County portion of the highway. Work on this section of the highway, which stretches from the county line to the Golden State Freeway, is scheduled for next January.

But the numerous dignitaries attending Friday’s ground breaking said for now that they are happy that the new improvements will go a long way toward making the highway safer for motorists.

“I kind of equate this to the groundbreaking for a hospital,” said Frank Schillo, chairman of the county Board of Supervisors. “This groundbreaking is going to save lives, just like a hospital would.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Road Timetable

The schedule for widening the two-lane portion of California 126 to four lanes:

Phase 1: Hallock Drive at Santa Paula’s eastern city limits to Hall Road, midway between Santa Paula and Fillmore.

Length:: 3.8 miles

Cost: $6.3 million

Completed: Fall 1985

Phase 2: Hall Road to A Street or Highway 23 in Fillmore.

Length: 4.5 miles

Cost: $13 million

Completed: May 1991

Phase 3: Powell Road southwest of Piru to Center Street in Piru.