After the Station fire, debris flows severely damaged Angeles Crest Highway. Caltrans hopes to reopen an 11-mile stretch of the route in December — but the unpredictable San Gabriel range might have other ideas.
Gustavo Ortega had expected problems, but nothing like this. The overnight storm, a typical February torrent, had rolled through La Cañada Flintridge, and Angeles Crest Highway stood right in its path. The next day, Ortega surveyed the damage.Less than a mile out, with the rooftops of the city still visible in his rearview mirror, he stopped. The road ahead had nearly disappeared, 24 feet of asphalt reduced to a sliver barely the width of his Expedition. Somewhere in the canyon below lay the rest of the pavement.
Then it dawned on him: The highway had nearly been lost.
An engineering geologist with Caltrans, Ortega is responsible for making sure the roads in Southern California stay securely attached to the ground. It isn't as easy as it seems, and in the San Gabriel Mountains, the Station fire had made the job nearly impossible.
Just past the collapsed stretch, a maintenance crew had scraped a path, heaping mud 4 feet deep into the opposite lane. Ortega started to think about possible structural solutions. In his mind, the clock was already running.
He considered commuters from Palmdale, researchers at Mt. Wilson and the technicians and service crews responsible for maintaining the communications towers and utility lines positioned throughout the mountains. More than 4,000 vehicles a day used this part of the highway last year.
Up ahead at Brown Canyon, the road was barely passable. Guardrails angled down into a water-carved gorge. K-rails and slabs of asphalt teetered on the edge of the broken grade or lay scattered in the canyon below. Crushed drainage pipes poked out of the craggy slope.
Ortega got out and took some pictures.
Caltrans had hoped to open the route, an 11-mile stretch between La Cañada-Flintridge and the Mt. Wilson Road, by summer. Estimates now say December, but given the unpredictable nature of these mountains, there are no guarantees.
Still, Ortega's confidence is undiminished. "I don't see the work on the Angeles Crest Highway as a losing battle," he says.
He is well-suited for the job.
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View entire article here: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-angeles-crest-20101013,0,4131205,full.story
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