Reopening of Newhall Pass Tunnel in Sight

November 3, 2007

NEWHALL - The Newhall Pass tunnel - where dozens of trucks piled up in a fiery crash earlier this month - will reopen by Thanksgiving weekend or possibly earlier, officials said Tuesday.

The timing is good for travelers heading out of town for the Nov. 22-25 Thanksgiving weekend. Last year, almost 3 million Southern Californians took to the roads over the holiday.

While this year's survey isn't complete, much the same traffic is expected, said Marie Montgomery, spokeswoman for the Automobile Club of Southern California.

Meanwhile, a special investigative unit of the California Highway Patrol continues to probe what went wrong, Sgt. Mark Garrett said.

All the drivers who escaped their burning vehicles have come forward and have been questioned, he said.

"A lot of these guys had to fly home. Their trucks were destroyed," Garrett said. "They went to their truck companies and we were contacted."

Construction crews are replacing a 93-foot section of the ceiling of the 530-foot tunnel and replacing melted reinforcement bar and 4 inches of concrete on 160 feet of the eastern wall, a Caltrans engineer said.

The fire within the tunnel burned as hot as 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, causing structural damage and turning the trucks into twisted steel skeletons.

The roadway through the tunnel was destroyed and will be repaved with concrete, more durable than the mix of asphalt and concrete it replaces.

Lighting also will be upgraded, with installation under the supervision of CSI Electrical Contractors of Santa Fe Springs, and Caltrans is considering dropping the advisory speed limit from 55 mph to 45 mph, spokeswoman Judy Gish said.

Other repairs will be made to the guardrail, drainage and landscaping.

Initially, the entire freeway was shut down because passenger lanes cross over the tunnel, and there was concern the bridge had been damaged.

Within days, the lanes reopened but southbound truck traffic continues to mix with passenger traffic while the bypass tunnel is closed.

Trucks are separated from regular traffic through the Newhall Pass for safety over the grade.

The mix causes the morning commuter traffic to back up more than usual, with heavy traffic starting two miles farther back, California Highway Patrol Officer John Lutz said.

As part of the project, Caltrans has closed the southbound Golden State Freeway connector to the northbound Antelope Valley Freeway.