Signal Tribune Newspaper

BY NICK DIAMANTIDES
Staff Writer

Almost six months have passed since the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) closed the northbound Atlantic Avenue offramp on the 405 Freeway. The ramp is still closed, and it looks as if it will not reopen until October at the earliest. Caltrans closed the ramp on January 26 because the slope adjacent to the ramp had collapsed during a heavy rainfall, covering the ramp with mud.
Caltrans officials originally predicted that the agency would reopen the offramp by April or May. No press releases concerning the site have been issued since then, and the ramp remains closed.
“The job was more complex than earlier estimated. The new design that we are currently implementing will provide a much more stable slope with enhanced drainage,” said Judy Gish, Caltrans spokeswoman. “We are now saying that it will be open no later than October but we can’t estimate the exact date.”
Other than that statement, Gish offered no details as to why such a seemingly small project could take so long to complete.
Other sources, however, have told the Signal Tribune that a behind-the-scenes dispute as to who is liable for the cost of repairing the slope is the real reason for the delay. “The owner of the property adjacent to the hill next to the offramp had some excavation done, which some people believe was what caused all the mud to flow into the offramp,” said an official of Target stores, who asked to not be identified. “The property that was excavated is not owned by Target, and we had nothing to do with the excavation. We have even offered to do the repair work, because the offramp closure is negatively impacting our sales, but Caltrans won’t allow us to do it.” (The Signal Hill Target Store is located at 950 East 33rd St., very near the closed offramp.)
Jonathan Krause, chief of staff for 8th District Councilwoman Rae Gabelich, said the councilwoman was asking agency officials to expedite the process for reopening the ramp.
“We have had discussions with Caltrans,” Krause noted. “We’ve been pushing them to get it done as quickly as possible, but of course we can’t control the decisions that Caltrans makes.”
State Senator Alan Lowenthal’s office has also tried, to no avail, to get Caltrans to move more quickly. “We were contacted by people in the community who asked us to help,” said Sam Hall, Lowenthal’s district representative. “We contacted Caltrans to let them know that the offramp needs to be opened as soon as possible because the closure is causing a great negative impact on businesses north of the freeway.”
Hall explained, however, that Caltrans has its own priorities.
“They have a list of projects that need to be done, and they have their own reasons for deciding which ones will be done first,” he said. “We can’t really do much to change that.”
Hall speculated that the mudflow could have caused underground shifting that damaged the structural integrity of the offramp.
“The last thing anybody wants is to have the offramp collapse under the weight of a school bus full of kids,” he said. “Sometimes there are good reasons for delays, and it might be that Caltrans is just taking the extra time to make sure the job is done right in the interest of public safety.”
Blair Cohn, executive director of the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association, agreed that ensuring the public’s safety was of paramount importance, but he insisted that solving the problems on that offramp should not have taken so long.
“The closure is hurting the businesses in this part of Long Beach,” he said. “That’s an issue that needs to be addressed too.”
Cohn said a Caltrans survey team came to the offramp site two weeks ago to determine the exact locations of the areas that needed work.
“We were happy to see a crew actually doing something, and we have been told they want to stabilize the hill and make it safe for everyone,” he added. “But every time we hear a deadline of when it is going to be finished, it gets pushed back.”
He added that Bixby Knolls residents and business owners are frustrated by the delays.
“We have a lot of momentum going on up here, but this is constricting it,” he said. “We keep making phone calls to put the pressure on Caltrans and state officials to get this done, but we are still being told that we have to wait.”
Cohn noted that many people in the community are wondering why, now that it is the dry season, Caltrans does not open the offramp until actual repair work begins.
“I don’t think it’s going to rain anytime soon, and I don’t think there is a danger of any more mudflows during the summer months,” he said. “I’ve had at least five different business owners say, ‘Let’s go down there with some shovels and clean it up ourselves,’ and I would be happy to join them.”
Cohn said the six-months-long closure is a prime example of a bureaucracy failing to meet a community’s needs and not bothering to communicate with the public it is supposed to serve.

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