Oxnard Bridge Is Branching Out at Last

Promising to end the gridlock that has plagued local motorists for years, construction crews have begun work on the long-delayed expansion of the Rose Avenue Bridge.

By widening the bridge from two to seven lanes and adding on- and offramps, city leaders and property owners hope to unclog traffic bottlenecks that worsened as commercial development boomed along the Ventura Freeway.

Construction workers started the 16-month project by cutting down about 30 eucalyptus trees along the freeway. As each tree fell, workers cut it into firewood to take home.

On Friday morning, grounds man Roque Gutierrez took a break from clearing branches as the pungent aroma of fallen trees drifted in the warm air. Gutierrez, an Ojai resident, said it is plain to see why locals have been clamoring for improvements to the bridge, which spans the freeway.

“It’s like Los Angeles traffic conditions,” Gutierrez said, removing earplugs used to block the freeway’s drone. “Backed up, slow, bumper-to-bumper.”

On the other side of the freeway, a huge mound of dirt to be used for grading looms over passing cars. Crews there are moving underground utility lines to make way for the new overpass.

The new construction comes after years of civic wrangling over the bridge.

Oxnard Mayor Manuel Lopez has been in the thick of much of the haggling. He said traffic bottlenecks near Rose Avenue increased after the Oxnard Auto Center opened about a decade ago.

Growth near Rose Avenue has surged in the 1990s, with the Shopping at the Rose complex adding stores and major retail outlets such as Sam’s Club, Best Buy and Wal-Mart, attracting shoppers from throughout Ventura County.

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City officials tried to get the California Department of Transportation to pay for the bridge expansion, Lopez recalled, but after failing to do so, eventually agreed to split the cost with property owners. The total cost of the project is $18.4 million, with property owners near the bridge to pay 62% and the city 38%.

“I think what we’re doing is going to alleviate the feelings a lot of people have,” Lopez said. “They’ve been dealing with a lot.” Store owners and shoppers seem to agree that the money for road improvements is well spent.

At the Greenhouse Cafe, manager Jesus Sanchez said afternoon business is not what it could be because many workers will not spend their lunch break in traffic jams.

“People only have half an hour to eat lunch, and they can’t make it over here,” Sanchez said. “There are a lot of cars and not enough lanes.”

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Like many in nearby El Rio, Tillie Nevarez shops on Rose Avenue, but comes early in the morning to beat congestion that builds throughout the day and peaks in early evening.

“After 2 o’clock, you can forget it,” she said as she packed her car with groceries outside Vons supermarket.

Her husband, Richard, noted that the couple had been married in the Santa Clara Catholic chapel near the Rose Avenue exit. Residential and commercial development subsequently steamed ahead, but road improvements did not keep pace, he said.

“I’ve seen it go from farms, to big businesses, subdivisions and malls,” he said, adding that “it’s about time” for the bridge overhaul.

Simi Valley resident Martha Violette said she has spent as much as 10 minutes waiting on the Rose Avenue Bridge. Often, she said, frustrated drivers break out of the traffic jam by driving on the edges of the bridge, in areas that are supposed to be used only for accessing on- and offramps.

But that has not stopped Violette from making her once-a-month, 70-mile round trip to Oxnard’s Wal-Mart. “It will make things so much better,” she said of the bridge expansion.

City Councilman John Zaragoza said he was a bit sad to see the eucalyptus trees come down to make way for cars.

But such concerns have been overwhelmed by the favorable reaction to the bridge expansion.

“People are saying it’s about time,” Zaragoza said.