ENVIRONMENTAL
Looking down the sheer drop on Monday (Photo – Reg Green).
What a difference a day makes — particularly if you have huge earth-moving vehicles and an agile little bulldozer to help you.
By Reg Green
The above photo shows why, in Colorado Boulevard recently, I called portions of the Angeles National Forest road to Mt. Lukens ‘lethal.’
On Monday the most damaged spot looked as it has done for months: eroded underneath and narrowed so that any passing vehicle could tumble over and over down a sheer 30ft. drop, when — not if — it gave way. The driver of such a vehicle — they pass this spot almost every day to service the emergency and cellphone antennae on the top of the mountain — would be lucky to escape with his life.
Looking down the sheer drop on Tuesday (Photo – Reg Green)..
By Tuesday morning the slope in that spot had been smoothed out, the road widened and the debris cleared. The work will go on until Friday, at least. Meanwhile, the road is closed to all vehicles and hikers. (Except your humble correspondent, who got there ahead of the maintenance crew).
Earthmover bringing soil to fill in ruts (Photo – Reg Green).
Update:
An earthmover was brought in to bring soil to fill in what were 3ft deep and 3ft wide ruts in the Angeles National Forest road to Mt. Lukens. The deteriorated dirt road had been undermined so much at this spot that trucks servicing the antennae on top of the mountain, which connect to first responders, hospitals and cell phones all over Southern California, had to drive within a few inches of a sheer 30 ft. drop. At other spots some large vehicles could not get through at all. Months ago Colorado Boulevard drew attention to the dangers of massive ruts on a road that before the antennae were built was used almost exclusively by hikers and bikers.
A journalist most of his life, Reg Green lives now in La Cañada Flintridge. He can be reached at his website, NicholasGreen.org.
[This article has been updated with more info and a new photo. Oct. 5, 2018, 3:22 pm]
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