Topanga Canyon Boulevard at Old Topanga Canyon Road will be open for the holidays. Roadwork resumes on January 4.
PHOTO BY FLAVIA POTENZA  County workers were busy completing temporary paving of Topanga Canyon Boulevard on November 23 and 24, just beating the deadline of November 25. The project is scheduled to resume January 4, once the artifacts found in the dig are analyzed and properly relocated. |
Gary H. Bozé, the Public Information Officer for the County of Los Angeles DPW, explains what happened: "In the latter part of October, there was a discovery of material within the roadwork trench that our archeological consultant believes may be Native American artifacts," he said. "This material may include animal or human remains."
As required by state law, Bozé said a plan of action to extract and analyze the material must be developed and implemented before construction work continues. A plan was developed and approved in November.
"However, before the archeological extraction can occur within the trench, all work will cease until the holiday season has ended (Nov. 25 through Jan. 4) ," Bozé said. "The suspension of work during this time was previously agreed upon by Public Works and the local merchants. The construction work suspension will lessen the impact on the merchants' businesses during the retail Holiday shopping period."
Then, in January 2010, Bozé said the archeological consultant will return to begin extraction of the material and analysis to determine what was found and how to best handle it.
"Although this is a Public Works project, the road is a state road so Caltrans' environmentalist and possibly the State Office of Historic Preservation will be involved in analyzing and determining the final disposition of the artifacts," he said. "Once the artifacts are properly relocated, construction will continue to complete the roadwork project."
Meanwhile, the plates will remain until after the artifacts are recovered and the county has permission from the jurisdictional agencies to backfill and pave. According to Bozé, the artifacts and any animal or human remains will be removed after the Holiday period sometime in the beginning of January.
"Once the artifacts have been removed, analyzed and the area cleared for construction, the roadwork will resume," he said. "The road construction will resume early spring 2010."
Bozé said the water main project consists of installing approximately 8,800 linear feet of 16-inch-diameter steel water main along Topanga Canyon Road from Old Topanga Road to West Hillside Drive and 2,800 linear feet of 12-inch-diameter water main along Topanga Canyon Boulevard, Topanga School Road and the Topanga Elementary School service road up to the Topanga Forks Tank.
The new pipelines will replace the aging existing 6-inch and 10-inch diameter water mains. Approximately 500 linear feet of the water main project is associated with the County library construction.
"The upgraded water main and pipelines will improve the quality of life for Topanga's residents by providing greater water reliability during peak customer demand timeframes and improve system protection safeguards of water operations during emergencies," Bozé said.
2005 Storm Repairs on Grandview and Greenleaf
Grandview Drive – The road is currently closed due to repairs to the road and slope; completion of the project is scheduled for mid-January 2010.
Greenleaf –The road is open while storm repairs are underway; completion of the project is mid-December 2009.
Other DPW storm repair jobs scheduled include
• Piuma Road, et al – May 2010 to August 2010.
• Entrada Road, et al – June 2010 to September 2010.
• Las Flores Canyon Road Pavement Preservation – June 2010 to October 2010.
• Tuna Canyon Road Pavement Preservation – August 2010 to October 2010.
• Tuna Canyon Road 2005 storm repair project – June 2010 to October 2010.
Area residents can visit The Public Works Road Closure website for a listing of area roads that may be closed or have restricted access.
