Highway S-Curve Project Approved

State transit officials have approved a costly project to straighten a deadly double curve on California 118 through Saticoy, one of Ventura County’s most heavily traveled commuter routes.

The California Transportation Commission agreed earlier this month to spend $5.9 million on the high-priority plan to widen and realign the S-curve on California 118 just west of Mesa elementary, said Pat Reid, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Transportation.

Although no one was killed there last year, two motorists died within a week of each other in December 1995 along the curve, which is between La Vista Avenue and the northbound leg of Los Angeles Avenue.

“We have about 100 parents a day that drop off and pick up their kids at school,” said Aldo Calcagno, principal of nearby Mesa Elementary School. “I’m concerned about their safety, as well as the safety of the kids coming in on the school buses.”

The curve-straightening project was approved at the same time as another project to re-stripe the rural, two-lane highway’s intersection with Somis and Donlon roads to improve traffic flow.

The striping project is set to begin in 2000, about the same time as the curve project. The work will take about a year, with work crews most likely keeping the road open while using signal flags to pass traffic through the construction zone, Reid said.