Highway 150 in Ventura County set to reopen after landslide closes road for 5 months

VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. (KABC) -- Ventura County residents could soon regain access to an essential portion of Highway 150 that has been closed since February.

A landslide near Santa Paula deemed a portion of SR-150 undriveable due to a two-story high pile of dirt covering the road. Officials aim to open one lane by the end of July, but it is still unclear when Caltrans will open both lanes of traffic on the highway.

This main road once connected Ojai to Santa Paula with a 15 to 20 minute drive. Now, residents are forced to take alternate roads that nearly triple their commute times.

"It's been terrible dealing with the closure. I go that route at most twice a week," Ojai resident Christopher Noxon said. "I have a museum show over there and I haven't been able to get there. It takes like 45 minutes to get to Santa Paula."

Caltrans crews have been working to secure the affected area's hillside by using machines to insert pipes into the ground to stabilize it. By stabilizing the dirt, they can also complete the installation of a retaining wall that protects the road and nearby homes.

"We should be able to open up one lane by the end of July, which would be key because there's a lot of interruption for local residents, and we're concerned about school starting back up," Caltrans worker Jim Medina said.

With fire season expected to ramp up in the coming months, the Ventura County Fire Department and residents are hoping the highway fully reopens soon. For now, a dirt road serves as an emergency route if residents have to evacuate.

"If we get to a point where we need to evacuate, that's going to be emergency purposes, we're going to be able to shut down the work that they're doing and be able to evacuate people through that one way road that's made for emergency purposes for us," Ventura County Fire Department Capt. Brian McGrath said..

"Personally, we have just been prepared. We have gas in the car, things like that," Ojai resident Sunday Rylander said.