Widening of California 126 Could Be Done by Year-End

Construction to widen California 126 to four lanes east of Fillmore could be finished by December, a half year earlier than scheduled, Caltrans told local officials this week.

But while the work to widen 4.7 miles of the notoriously dangerous road--from the outskirts of Fillmore to Powell Road--is six to eight months ahead of schedule, the contractor’s project manager said Friday that his company isn’t making any promises.

“We’ve never made any commitment to them when we’d be done,” said Joe Ferndino of Security Paving of Sun Valley, adding that the company’s contract calls for it to complete the widening work by summer 1998.

“At the rate we’re going right now, we’d be done by [December], but if the opportunity arises we’re going to pull some people out and do other work,” he said.

Ferndino said if the company is successful in bidding on other construction projects, it normally reassigns employees to meet the increased workload.

In fact, the company has already decreased its 30- to 40-employee work force to about 25 people, he said. So far, the road-widening project is between 50% and 60% finished, according to Ferndino. The entire project, including landscaping, is still officially slated for completion by December 1998.

Still, Fillmore Mayor Roger Campbell, who has been pushing for the construction to be completed earlier in an effort to cut the death toll on the deadly highway, said he was pleased to hear the job may be finished in December.

“That was exactly what I asked for,” he said. “What it means in terms of lives is it’s going to save a bunch of them.”

Of the 11 people who died on California 126 in December and January, five of the accidents were in construction zones.

Campbell, however, said he was dismayed to learn there is no guarantee the work will be completed by year’s end.

To encourage Security Paving to finish its work this year, the California Department of Transportation could offer the contractor financial incentives, as it has done with other projects it wanted finished ahead of schedule.

“At one time Caltrans was talking about paying us to speed the job up, but that seems like it’s gone by the wayside,” Ferndino said.

The work is one of two widening projects underway on California 126. The other, an $11.4-million project covering a 5.4-mile stretch from Center Street in Piru to the Los Angeles County line, is expected to be finished this spring.

Meanwhile, commuters on the route that connects the Golden State and Ventura freeways will soon face navigating a third construction zone.

A widening project in the Santa Clarita Valley from the Los Angeles County line to the Golden State Freeway is expected to begin in late April or early May, Caltrans spokesman Rick Holland said. Granite Construction of Palmdale was awarded a $13.6-million contract last week.

Completion of the 5.2-mile project in mid-1998 means the entire highway will have four lanes from Santa Paula to Santa Clarita.

“We’ll take the same precautionary measures so we don’t have the same situation we did before,” Holland said. “We’ve learned from the last couple of jobs that we need to do some things to make it safer.”

A public awareness campaign prompted by the rash of deaths on the highway is scheduled to begin in mid-May, he said.