SIERRA WAY UPDATE: Kern County starts work to restore road

For many residents, the 155 Fire that occurred in June illustrated the importance of having Sierra Way repaired so it could be used as an escape route.

• Salvador Gomez, Assistant Director of Transportation at Kern County Public Works says public works is now working to restore the road to pre-disaster conditions and ultimately want to come up with a plan that will protect the road from future flood events.
• Sierra Way was closed by Kern County on March 10, 2023. Work started to restore it to pre-disaster conditions on July 15, 2024 with a projected completion date of November 4, 2024.
• The cost to restore the road to pre-disaster condition is 3.2 million dollars.

BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:

“It’s expected to take about 85 working days, which will take it up the week of November 4th,” said Salvador Gomez, Assistant Director of Transportation at Kern County Public Works.

Gomez says the county is working to restore the road to pre-disaster conditions.

“The project is 3.2 million dollars. The first phase will de-water the southern flow and construct a 4-bay box culvert. Phase two will be to re-route the water where the failure happened and then construct two culverts and then reconstruct the roadway back to pre-disaster conditions.”

Gomez told me that the county is working with a consultant to come up with a new design for the road that will be implemented in the future that will be able to withstand another flood event.

“This is a temporary solution, it is designed for a ten year flood. Once we construct a permanent solution, it will be constructed to [withstand] a hundred year flood.”

Gomez said that right now there is not an estimated completion date for the permanent solution.

The road was rendered impassable after flows from the South Fork caused extensive damage to the road last spring.

Residents in the Kern River Valley say that Sierra way could become an important escape route if people needed to evacuate due to a fire.

“Even though we have a schedule for 85 working days we think we will be able to get it done sooner than that, but we just wanted to have that, we didn’t want to be too conservative,” Gomez said.

“We are concerned, just like the public, we want to get it open as soon as possible.”

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