KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
Los Angeles County officials are preparing to look at the closure of Bouquet Canyon Road next week at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisor’s meeting.
Sponsored Articles
The road was closed last month and public officials announced they expected it to be closed until mid-April, due to the chance that the adjacent Bouquet Canyon Creek could wash out the road with the smallest amount of precipitation.
Supervisor Michael Antonovich’s office is requesting the county’s Public Works Department address the board Nov. 15 regarding the status of the road closure and the plans to clear out the creek.
“The county road commissioner will be there to answer questions and to offer an update for all of the issues that have come up,” said Edel Vizcarra, planning deputy for Antonovich’s office. “We made a proposal that we think they’ll be open to.”
“The plan is to have the road open as long as the department can see that no rain is in the forecast that week,” he said.
The county roads commissioner has already deemed the road unsafe due to the potential for a washout, which is necessitating the county Board of Supervisors to address a potential re-opening.
The cleaning out of the adjacent creek is stopping the road from being safe year-round, although according to Antonovich’s office, the delays have been at the state and federal level.
Assemblyman Tom Lackey’s office has been helpful and Fish and Wildlife has been cooperative, but “Sacramento” and federal requests to widen the scope of the project have further delayed work on the creek.
“We want to talk about the road closure,” Vizcarra said, “and we want to talk about the permits for the overall (creek) project.”
Unless the rain is a torrent like we had in 2005 (11 years ago by the way) any person driving Bouquet canyon rd taking into consideration the weather and possible road conditions will be fine. Thousands of people drive this road every day without incident, myself included. Work shouldn’t be done on that section of the road til that section of the creek is taken care of. I’m out of town and can’t make the meeting, but would live to share my experience on the canyon.
Agreed – most of us that drive the canyons every day are very familiar with adequate speeds and corresponding road conditions. Having this closure has now created a separate issue on San Fransiquito road due to significantly increased vehicle volume. This over cautious approach has actually lead to a situation where people are driving a road they normally do not use, and creating traffic jams and not pulling over…
Additionally, if the creek has had this issue for a while now – then a plan should have already been developed on how to address the drainage if officials were being proactive. I would recommend that Bouquet Canyon be re-opened and only closed if rain actually compromises the roadway. In the interim, officials should spend the time developing out a plan and getting all pre-approvals up front. This way IF the road becomes compromised and quick action plan is already developed and work can begin / end immediately.
Please re open bouquet canyon road.a.s.a p. What is there was a fire we would all be trapped….alot of elderly live in the canyon very hard them if they need police or emergency. And those with dis abilities need this opened already.the state knows this was wrong to allow this to happen to owners living in the area a horrible inconvenience for us all.were americans and have rights.