There was good news Friday for commuters and other motorists who have been unable to use Highway 154 to travel between Santa Barbara and the Santa Ynez Valley.
Caltrans announced that the rural state highway, which has been closed to through traffic for nearly three weeks, will reopen by Wednesday, March 6, weather permitting.
“Caltrans will provide an exact date and time of opening by the end of next week,” said Jim Shivers, a Caltrans District 5 spokesman.
The roadway was shut down Feb. 2 after heavy rains spawned a debris flow from the Whittier Fire burn area that clogged a culvert under the highway east of the entrance to the Cachuma Lake Recreation Area.
The agency and its contractors have been working on an emergency project to clear the culvert, repair the embankment and restore the roadway surface. CalPortland Construction of Santa Maria is the contractor for the $2.2 million project.
Caltrans previously had estimated it would be mid-March before the highway was reopened.
Highway 154 remains shut down at Live Oak Camp on the east and the entrance to Lake Cachuma on the west.
When the highway re-opens, motorists may encounter one-way reversing traffic control so that Caltrans can perform additional work at this location, Shivers said.
Click here for information from Caltrans on highway conditions.
— Noozhawk executive editor Tom Bolton can be reached at tbolton@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
