Road Reopens After Pipelines Installed

Shady Canyon Drive, formerly Bonita Canyon Drive, is now open to traffic, officials announced Friday.

The road was closed in May to allow the Irvine Ranch Water District to install pipelines for domestic water, reclaimed water and sewage all at once. Since then, some Turtle Rock residents have had to use alternate routes to get out of the development and onto the major thoroughfares of Culver or University drives.

Water district officials decided to close the road for seven months and combine all pipeline projects rather than stretching the work out over two years and keeping the road partially open during construction.

The new road is two lanes wide and includes bicycle lanes. It was renamed in August to distinguish the route into Turtle Rock from the portion of Bonita Canyon Drive that will connect Culver Drive to the San Joaquin Hills tollway. Construction of that segment of Bonita Canyon Drive is set for completion early next year.