Repair Funds May Be Down the Road

The county could receive $3.5 million in federal money next month to repair landslide-damaged Balcom Canyon Road, but it may be another year before the road is reopened.

One reason for the delay is the sheer size of the project, officials said. Last winter’s storms unleashed landslides that shut down a 3.3-mile section of the narrow, twisting roadway.

An environmental impact study will also have to be done before work begins, officials said. With winter ahead, that could be months away.

“It’s a total inconvenience,” said Ann Myers, who used the roadway to travel from her Santa Paula home to Somis three days a week to care for her horse at a stable.

“Even though it had all those twists and turns, I really liked taking Balcom Canyon Road,” Myers said. “Now I have to take an extra 20 or 30 minutes and use the 118, which can be a little scary because it’s so dangerous.”

Myers and others who regularly use the road are forced to take circuitous routes along California 118 and 126 to reach their destinations, detours that can add a half hour or more to their trips.

“It’s a hassle,” said Steve Bell, manager of J. Don Farms in Somis. “I’ve had a few times where I’ve had to drive 30 minutes out of the way just to get to Santa Paula.”

Immediately after the slides, there was talk of closing the road permanently because the traffic load was not that great and because it was not an important artery for commercial vehicles.

But because it is one of only two roads connecting the California 126 and 118 corridors, county transportation officials decided it was necessary to fix the road.

“There’s a limited number of surface routes between the 126 and the 118 and there are a fair amount of residents and businesses that use the road,” said Butch Britt, a county public works official. Since the slides, the California Department of Transportation and the county’s Department of Public Works have been working to find the $3.5 million in federal highway repair grants necessary to fix the badly damaged road.

Now it appears the federal government will approve the money for the project next month. Still, work crews are not expected to begin repairs until next summer, Britt said.

“It is frustrating and I definitely sympathize with everyone who’s been put out by this,” Britt said. “But the county suffered a lot of damage over the winter, and it becomes a much longer process when you’ve got a road with this much damage.”

Once an easy two-lane connector between communities in Las Posas Valley and inland cities such as Santa Paula and Fillmore, Balcom Canyon Road now looks more like an abandoned mining trail, thick with thorny weeds and brown chaparral.

Not only are sections of the road piled high with dirt, but another section, which skirts the back end of a box canyon, has given way. The sides of the road have long been littered with beer bottles, condoms, refrigerators and even the decaying carcass of a cow.

The canyon floor, which is several hundred feet below the road, is spotted with the rusting bodies of abandoned cars that have been pushed over the side, and the reflective signs that mark the road as closed are now covered with graffiti and pocked with bullet holes.

Brenda Dunbar, who runs a horse boarding and training facility in Somis, said she has heard an earful from clients upset about the road closure.

“There are a lot of people who are annoyed,” she said. “Some of my customers have to drive all the way to Ventura and then to [California 23] just to see their horses. . . . It’s really a mess for them, and they can’t wait to see them fix the road.”