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A 3.5-mile stretch of Bouquet Canyon Road is closed indefinitely due to the continued silt buildup in the creek that has caused safety concerns.
“The road is going to remain closed all through the winter at the very least,” said Los Angeles County Public Works spokesman Steven Frasher. “We fully understand the inconvenience it causes. The creek is leaking on the road all of the time now. We have to ensure public safety, so we can’t have the road open anymore.”
The closure begins 2 miles north of Vasquez Canyon Road, or just south of the Big Oaks Lodge and ends 5.5 miles north of Vasquez Canyon Road, or about 6 miles south of Spunky Canyon Road. This section of Bouquet Canyon Road is owned by the U.S. Forest Service and is operated under permit by LA County Public Works, according to a news release.
The road closure began Thursday evening, when rain came through the Santa Clarita Valley.
“This storm that came through over the weekend forced our hand at with an earlier than planned closure,” Frasher said.
The road is closed to all through traffic, including cyclists, with the exception of emergency vehicles, Frasher said. The closure is expected until at least April 15, which officially marks the end of the winter storm season.
No homes or businesses are in the closed stretch.
Silt has been building up in the creek, which gets its water from the Bouquet Reservoir, since 2005 when heavy flooding came through the Santa Clarita Valley. The federal government has not allowed cleanup of the creek in order to protect the endangered unarmored three-spine stickleback, which is only found in the SCV.
The Reservoir not only fills the creek, but through the creek, fills the wells of homes and businesses in Bouquet Canyon. Businesses including Lombardi Ranch and LARC Ranch have been severely impacted.
Several propositions have been made to clean the creek, including realigning the road and hooking up Bouquet Canyon homes and businesses with municipal water sources.
In 2014, two gates were installed at both ends of the 3.5-mile stretch and were closed when water was let out of the creek or when storms came through the area.
Assemblyman Tom Lackey, R-Palmdale, introduced Assembly Bill 353, in 2015 and was signed into law. The bill allows for the removal of wildlife from the creek and allow for officials to restore the creek and wildlife to to pre-flood conditions.
Public Works released a proposal for public review in August of 2016 but was turned down by public comments and officials were sent back to the drawing board, Frasher said.
CHP (Monday 3:27 p.m.)
The condition of Bouquet Canyon Creek is prompting an extended closure of a portion of Bouquet Canyon Road within Angeles National Forest. The road, which was closed Thursday, October 27, due to predicted rain, will remain closed to all traffic at least through winter storm season, which officially ends on April 15.
This section of Bouquet Canyon Road is owned by the U.S. Forest Service and is operated under permit by LA County Public Works. There are no homes or businesses within the closure area.
Several years of sediment and vegetation build-up in Bouquet Canyon Creek have compromised the creek’s ability to properly convey water within the canyon. Even minor creek flows lead to inundation of some sections of the adjacent roadway, creating potentially unsafe driving conditions for motorists. These conditions, and the arrival of storm season, necessitated the decision to close the road.
The c losure extends from the gate approximately six miles south of Spunky Canyon Road, (near Mile Marker 12.55, just south of Big Oaks Lodge), to the gate near the southern boundary of Angeles National Forest (near Mile Marker 15.97, two miles north of Vasquez Canyon Road).
Plans for the restoration of Bouquet Canyon Creek are being developed through a rigorous environmental review process. In August, LA County Public Works released an environmental document referred to as an Initial Study and Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND). Stakeholder comments received on the IS/MND are being discussed with regulatory agencies to further develop creek restoration plans.
Motorists are advised to seek alternate routes.
Not sure if you take this way ever but just in case Kaitlin and Deborah Sue
Well that’s unfortunate as that was my route. Now I’m stuck going with the freeway. Thanks for the heads up Natalie!
Darnit, was hoping wasn’t the case?
You should follow this page, perhaps they’ll be updating info.
This is usually my back-up way home, i feel for those that live there! Thanks Natalia!
What a joke! Vasquez still closed and now this. I’d hate to live in the AV> I know someone who lives in the cabins and has to drive all the way around to get her kid to Saugus
I think there’s this thing called the 14 freeway. If I’m not mistaken, it goes right through AV….
Yea smartass have you driven it during rush hour??
Jeff Selph exactly! Two hour tour!!
Kevin Christopherson obviously you’ve never had to drive the 14th between 5-8am smh
Lots more reasons to hate living in AV than traffic and road closures
Robert Bert’n Savage Alise Mullen
Sorry Savage! :(
Carl Lee Hill
Justin Graham
Dennis McWilliams Jr
Kathy
SandyI know you take Sierra, but your ride just got busier.
Christian Velez Michael Simmons
So forget the stupid fish or frog and clean out the riverbed.
Well this just made a lot of people’s days a lot worse.
Fix the creek ASAP!
TravisandCandice Bibeau
?
Toni Golphenee
Bunch of bullcrap by the forest service
Yep. They don’t want anybody on “their land”…
Kurt Buck you are exactly right but there’s one problem it’s not their land it’s the people’s land they only act like it is their land
It’s not the forest service…. the road closure is in place by la county roads.
Thank you Ashlee Trzyna for clarifying that for me I had seen a news broadcast a day or two ago and that is where I was getting my info
I understand. A lot of people face confusion on things like this since it is a road within the forest.
Ashlee Trzyna Nicely done…
Kurt Knechtel Morgan Knechtel
Bill Leitzell…Bad news for you! David Stolp?
WTF? Oh crap that sucks big time, I was wondering, they been blaming it on the weather
The Liberals have destroyed California ..
Yes because “liberals” are the ones that like to destroy the land we live on.
Stupid bunch..!
I usually agree. This is Mother Nature tho. We live in a quake prone state and right on a fault line, can’t blame the libtards for this one
Oh gosh u all are the stupid bunch ?
Anyone who uses the word libtard can’t be taken seriously as they are a moron
America is going down the same road as CA. Heading toward single party rule and the liberals aren’t particularly concerned with sustainability
Hahaha Kerry you are a special kind of tard
Trevor Linam , Your state is bankrupt just like the other liberal states. Now who is a tard ?
Veronika Tesarek
Brittany Espinosa
I guess we don’t get our Mail with Bouquet being
Closed?
Sarah Elizabeth Tew
Flo DuBack Shephard
How do we get to Big Oaks? Doesn’t the closure affect their business?
Oh man. This is absolute bs. City has gotta do something to fix these routes
Not sure this is even in the city,
I used to fish ? and camp with my dad back there in the 80’s and it was a real beautiful area. but then it started being destroyed by people either just driving through or people who would throw dirty diapers in the water not caring that it was once a pretty good spot to fish trout. Im happy they closed it maybe time will heal this once gorgeous spot in LA.
They closed it because of the “Endangered Species Act. ” The result was dried up wells, fishing gone and Lombardi’s Ranch closed. A political play?
Trevor
Raven Michel
I am so upset about this!
Add more traffic to Soledad and Sierra Hwy. Vasquez needs to be fixed, it has been almost a year.
Hasn’t stopped people from using Bouquet Cyn. I see a ton of cars come up this way daily
The sticklebacks have not been seen out of a lab at UC Davis for years and many believe what were ID’d were mis-identified
Vote trump
This is total BS…Pull up your girlie pants liberal loons!
You guys forget this whole area all the politicians are Republicans they are the ones f****** you
Don Teller RINO’s…
You mean because you’re not crazy and insane like you are
It’s so peaceful like it used to be. I can actually hear the wild life in the morning and evening instead of the hum of traffic and sirens.
For 20 years i lived in 1 of the cabins. No traffic just peace and quiet. Then Antelope Valley found a new route down Bouquet. Rush hours were not safe to be walking along the road any more. Then came the big washout in the early 80’s. Bouquet was closed for a long time to put the road back together again. peace and quiet had returned once more. I am positive the cabin owners are happy once again.
Barbara Paterson do you know about this?
Grace Martinez Daneyi Ceron Ortega oh oh! No more short cut ? (actually long cut)
Damn! ??
You guys forget this whole area all the politicians are Republicans they are the ones f****** you
Skip Wickersham Kerry Wickersham
For anyone who would like to take a stand against the closing of Bouquet, please call or email these people (nothing will change without effort!):
Gail Farber, 626-458-4002, gfarber@dpw.lacounty.gov
Michael Antonovich, 661-726-3600
Steve Frazier 626-458-3974
Gail Farber is the person who made the decision to block the road, so she is most important to contact!
Now 2 riding routes closed
Thanks for the info, John …
Stephanie Garrett fyi
Bouquet road closure.
There are homes in this area being severely affected. Approx. 50 seperate residences
#1 this is a vote by mail district and with mail service being shut down we cannot vote.
#2 special needs school children who ride the school bus have been left home since Friday with no way for bus to pick them up.
#3 Food deliverys, water deliverys have been shut down leaving residents in this canyon in dire straights. We are on well-water and must have fresh drinking water supplied.
All services such as garbage removal have been stopped.
Residents who may have medical emergency would also prevent help from arriving or at a minimum significantly delayed
Please help us
Toni Spangler-Boscia Chace Boscia ? this sucks
WTF!!!! ??????
I have made a report of voter suppression as we cannot send in our ballots as bouquet canyon is a vote by mail district. I have called or emailed everyone from president Obama to candidates, congressman, senators, county supervisors and every news outlet I could think of. Please do the same if your on bouquet. This is wrong what they are doing. They could shut down one lane at a time and still accomplish the same task. Please write or call anyone you can
Everyone can debate all the other issues but at least don’t start your article stating it’s because of SAFETY. IT’S NOT! State the real reason it is closed. The habitat of the never seen fish.
Hopefully, the Big Oaks can stay afloat!
Joe Madge
Hopefully they do something about the water that likes to linger in the road which caused me to crash into the guard rail
The water didn’t cause you to crash…the crash was your fault because you drove too fast for roadway conditions. The signs are CLEARLY posted warning drivers of the potential for water to be in that area. If the water caused the crash, then every single driver going through that area would have crashed too. It’s drivers like you that have cause the County to close the road.
Just means more antelope vallites effing up the commute on Soledad, Sand, and Placerita Cyn.
Joanna
No!!!! I take this everyday. Crap
Glad our tax dollars are hard at work
Maybe they should have thought about this type of closure and others 20 years ago when they decided to stuff 25000 new homes into SCV area which was already over crowded.
1979 there were 25,000 in SCV. 20 years later 250,000 with the same roads as in 1979. At what point do you reach absolute saturation?
There is a Facebook page to petition to reopen Bouquet Canyon, along with a lot of other information:
http://www.facebook.com/bouquet.canyon.9
What a shame this small section of road cannot be fixed. businesses are suffering commuters are burdened and yet we still pay the taxes to fix these problems. Common these get it together USA.