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Caltrans has been presented with documentation of repeated incidents involving trucks on Route 33 that are so large that they can not help but move into oncoming traffic lanes as they navigate hairpin turns or pass through the narrow 70 year old tunnels that were not designed to handle oversized vehicles.

Given the gravel mining permits now up for approval in Ventura and Santa Barbara County, that means one of those fully loaded trucks will moving down Route 33 and through Ojai every five minutes of the day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. These permits will effectively turn a narrow back county road into a non-stop industrial highway.

Caltrans has promised to have the results of the study completed in two months. Given the potential for a conflict of interest by some Caltrans staff, the Ojai based coalition is committed to hiring their own experts to review, if necessary, the Caltrans study when completed.

Some of the specific safety concerns of the coalition in regards the Caltrans study include:

1) A series of tunnels that were carved through the mountain back in 1933 that are far too narrow and short to accommodate even a single modern gravel truck in its lane.

2) Numerous hairpin turns that gravel trucks are equally unable to navigate without crossing into on coming traffic.

3) Excessive speeding by trucks paid by the load and not by the hour that have already been photographed jack-knifed all across the road.

4) Excessive wear and tear on the road bed, not only on the mountain stretch but also through Ojai to the 101. Already the Arnaz Grade, repaired after winter floods only 18 months ago is beginning to break down and collapse due to overweight truck traffic.

5) Excessive volume of truck traffic that prevent anyone else from safely using the road.

6) Frequent adverse weather conditions atop the mountain, including ice and snow, that may not be apparent to truckers coming from either Cuyama or Ojai.

7) An absence of truck scales between Cuyama and Ojai as well as a total inability of CHP to enforce traffic rules – something gravel truckers count on.

8) Trucks also frequently detour through residential streets to avoid detection during restricted hours of operation.

9) Ojai's economy and that of the surrounding region is based on tourism and safe access to the wilderness surrounding it. Adding a steady flow of fully loaded double hopper gravel trucks at all hours of the day and night onto California Route 33, which is the main transportation artery into the valley, is incompatible with safe access to this community.

10) Route 33 was built during the Great Depression as a WPA project. At the time it was conceived as the ultimate north-south road for all California commerce. That 1930's vision failed the reality test. The road is simply too dangerous and it was ultimately replaced by the "5," the "101" and the "99."

11) Route 33 already surpasses its maximum traffic loads in the Ojai Valley, particularly during the morning and afternoon rush hours. Once you pass Fairview heading south it is the main and at times only traffic artery through the heart of this valley, home to some thirty thousand residents. It passes by the hospital, the high school, our only shopping plaza, numerous senior citizen mobile home parks and the main generator of our economy, the Ojai Valley Inn and Spa. Adding double long gravel trucks at all hours is not going to help this situation.

12) We are not against allowing the mining and transportation of gravel. However the only safe solution is to require and restrict all gravel trucks to limit their driving to the far safer Route 166 from Cuyama to the 101 at Santa Maria.

In January, ForestWatch and community leaders participated in an Ojai town meeting where hundreds of concerned citizens packed Chaparral Auditorium on a rainy night to find out more about this issue. Since then, several community leaders who attended that town meeting have joined together to form the "Stop the Trucks” committee.

Members of this coalition help generate 375 letters to the Santa Barbara Planning Commission on gravel trucks. Among those voicing their concerns during the comment period were: Ojai Chamber of Commerce, Ventura County Supervisor Steve Bennett, Ojai City Council, Ojai Unified School District, the U.S. Forest Service, California Department of Fish & Game, Ventura and Santa Barbara Air Pollution Control Districts, Ojai Valley Municipal Advisory Council, Chumash Council of Bakersfield, Santa Ynez Band of Mission Indians, the Los Padres Forest Association, Keep the Sespe Wild, Sierra Club, Mira Monte Beautification Committee, Ojai Valley Board of Realtors, Ojai Valley Green Coalition, Environmental Coalition of Ventura County, Cuyama Valley residents and landowners, and hundreds of other agencies, organizations, local businesses, and individuals.

The number of trucks that have recently flooded through the Ojai Valley has grown to over 100 a day, 24 hours a day.

For a full PowerPoint presentation on these you can also go to:

Download: Truck Traffic: Impact on Highway 33 (.PPT, 10.3 MB)


Or: http://www.ojaipost.com/stopthetrucks.shtml