Box Canyon Road Pavement Resurfacing

Location

Box Canyon Road – Ventura County

City or County Responsible for Project

Ventura County Public Works

Category

Roads: Efficient and Sustainable Road Maintenance, Construction and Reconstruction Projects.

Author

Matt Maechler

Organization

Ventura County Public Works, Transportation, Design and Construction

Address

800 S. Victoria Ave.

Phone

(805) 477-1911

Project Description

The Box Canyon Road Resurfacing Project was a challenging and successful project for Ventura County Public Works Agency, Transportation Department. It incorporated new sustainable and efficient paving technologies, advanced traffic safety measures, and extensive public outreach. Box Canyon Road is a two-mile-long high-volume commuter road through a rugged mountain pass in eastern Ventura County, that connects the community of Simi Valley in Ventura County to Chatsworth in Los Angeles County. The road is narrow and winding and home to an isolated community. A major challenge of the project was the high volume of commuter traffic that travels at high speed through Box Canyon. Because this is a narrow, winding road it was important for County staff to maximize traffic safety during construction while minimizing local community inconvenience. Additionally, County staff needed to ensure high-quality construction with minimal delays to traffic. Box Canyon Road had significant pavement damage in many localized areas. The lanes are 11 feet wide with no shoulders, putting the workers and equipment very close to passing traffic. Various solutions were explored, and a scheme was selected that met our goals, including use of new paving technologies to minimize construction delays and traffic exposure to workers while providing an excellent product, and extensive advance public outreach (regarding traffic control and lower speeds). Box Canyon Road received a layer of rubberized chip seal (Asphalt Rubber Aggregate Membrane or ARAM) followed by a 2” rubberized asphalt overlay. This is a progressive and cost-effective approach; the ARAM layer is flexible and helps stop reflective cracking, protecting the overlay which follows. Much of the minor pavement repair of the old pavement was thus avoided prior to placement of the overlay, which minimized traffic delays, exposure of workers to traffic, and shortened the overall construction time. This also minimized community inconvenience. Extensive public outreach was also done, in advance of construction, to alert the community of the impacts to their commuter route. A private firm was hired, which used social media, mailers, changeable message boards and the local newspaper to get the word out. As a result, by the time construction began a large proportion of commuters were already avoiding the route, and traffic volumes remained lower until work was completed. We received no complaints during construction. Using ARAM and a rubberized asphalt overlay is an environmentally sustainable paving approach; this diverted approximately 4,000 tires from going to a landfill and improved the quality of the road treatment. The use of an ARAM layer also avoided extensive localized pavement repairs which shortened the project time, protected workers, and provided a quality finished product. The project was successfully completed with minimal traffic impacts to the community and no safety issues.