For nearly five years, residents have been clamoring for the damaged section of Highway 173 between Arbon Lane and Grass Valley Road to be repaired and reopened. The road serves as access and egress for the community of Deer Lodge Park, as a route for emergency vehicles, and as an evacuation route in case of an emergency.

The storms that followed the Old Fire of 2003 created rock- and landslides along this section of road, leading to its closure with locked gates at either end.

At a community meeting held last April, Caltrans consultant Dennis Green announced a contract had been awarded to Grand Pacific Contractors. While he anticipated work beginning by the end of May, additional environmental studies checking for active spotted owl nests had to be completed.

When asked by it took so long for the repairs to begin, Caltrans PIO Darin Cooke said they had looked at all the projects in the mountain communities and ranked them in priority by amount of travel. “We had to use the funding for the more-traveled routes that needed immediate attention,” he said, adding, “But we’re there now.”

Work finally began on July 23. Originally, Caltrans Community Liaison Tim Watkins said, the contractors were going to work in all eight locations identified as needing repairs. However, there was concern the area designated as Number 5 would present difficult geological issues. The decision was made to begin there.

Area 5 is the location Assemblyman Anthony Adams visited last November with Deer Lodge Park residents Carol and Duane Banner. They had enlisted the assemblyman’s help in raising the priority level of the project.

Banner explained to Adams what had happened in her neighborhood the morning of Oct. 22, when the Grass Valley Fire broke out. Sheriff’s deputies and neighbors, she said, went house to house, rousing the residents and telling them to leave immediately. The sky was glowing orange with smoke and flames less than a quarter of a mile away.

“As we drove south along Grass Valley Road,” Banner told Assemblyman Adams, “we learned it was blocked by a fallen tree, an electrical pole and wires. The only way out was Edgecliff Drive, which is too narrow for both the fleeing residents and the incoming fire equipment.”

A quick-thinking sheriff’s deputy knew one lane of the washed-out Highway 173 had been repaired at the site of the washout. “He was yelling it was open to Lake Arrowhead and we could get out that way,” Banner said.

As the Banners stood overlooking the washed out road with the assemblyman, they asked him just how long residents have to wait for the repairs to be made.

The assemblyman pledged to stay in close contact with Caltrans District 8 and make sure the repair stayed a top priority.

They are all pleased the work is finally underway.

“I’m thrilled Caltrans has begun reconstruction of the highway and I’m eternally grateful for the everlasting patience of our mountain communities,” said Assemblyman Adams. “I’m looking forward to opening this road back up and for the mountain communities to enjoy the full benefit of it.”

THE REPAIR PROCESS

Because the road had collapsed so completely and so deeply, the Grand Pacific workers have to gradually build it back up, creating a gabion wall. During a visit to the site last Monday, Caltrans senior construction engineer Ray Stokes, Grand Pacific CEO Wayne Stevenson and Grand Pacific Project Manager Dorie Anderson showed off the first layer of what will eventually be 21 or 22.

Workers that day had just finished compacting additional soil to create the first layer. After the final pass of the steamroller-type equipment, workers from the Caltrans lab in Victorville took samples of the dirt to check its compaction. Stokes explained after punching a pilot hole, they insert a probe from a nuclear gauge that emits radiation. The readings it takes are used to calculate the relative compaction, which must be a minimum of 95 percent.

“This is the slow part of the process,” Stevenson said. But the compaction must prove out correctly to guard against future erosion.

Grand Pacific workers then put down overlapping strips of geogrid, a synthetic reinforced fabric. On top of the fabric they put metal gabion baskets, which are then filled with river rock. The fabric is wrapped over the baskets and soil is added and compacted to the top level of the baskets. And then the process begins again.

The soil being used was excavated from the site and stockpiled on the road. The contractor was able to grade it so high-profile emergency vehicles would be able to get through.

Grand Pacific covered the soil with plastic as a temporary erosion control measure when rain was forecast recently. Stokes said some offroaders had cut the locks and ridden through the area, causing costly damage to the tarps.

“These guys think it’s funny,” said Stevenson, “but it’s an act of vandalism.” Watkins added since it’s a construction site, unauthorized people need to stay out for their own safety.

Once the road is built up to its original level, it will be paved and the slope will be restored to Forest Service standards.

Grand Pacific has just gotten authorization from Caltrans to work concurrently on the seven other areas needing repair. That work is minor compared to Area 5.

The goal is to complete the work by Halloween.

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