Photos: Battling to reopen Angeles Crest Highway
Gustavo Ortega overlooks a damaged stretch of Angeles Crest Highway. Ortega is responsible for making sure the roads in Southern California stay securely attached to the ground. It isnÂ’t as easy as it seems, and in the San Gabriel Mountains, the Station fire had made the job nearly impossible. See full story (Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times)
Caltrans workers on a storm-damaged stretch of Angeles Crest Highway. Roads in California have always taken a beating; daily commutes, 18-wheelers and fiery accidents tell only part of the story. The slipping and sliding of the ground deserves its own chapter. See full story (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Saul Ballesteros keeps an eye on a massive drill bit as a Caltrans crew constructs a soldier pile tie-wall. After assessing the damage to the Angeles Crest, Gustavo Ortega identified six sites for major reconstruction. See full story (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
A massive conduit is being placed under Angeles Crest Highway to drain excess runoff. See full story (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Tom Brightbill prepares a 48-inch core bit to be used in construction of a wall that will shore up Angeles Crest Highway. Why the highway failed is no mystery. In the aftermath of the Station fire, the U.S. Forest Service predicted an “increase in destructive debris flows.†See full story (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Construction worker Ben Gomez Jr. walks inside a 10-foot-by-10-foot culvert that would channel water beneath Angeles Crest Highway at Brown Canyon into a concrete flume to the creek below. See full story (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Gustavo Ortega, an engineering geologist with Caltrans, surveys nearly completed work at Brown Canyon along Angeles Crest Highway. See full story (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)
