An emergency road-work project to repair a massive sinkhole on state Route 78 in North County met delay after delay, including a setback on the day westbound lanes were scheduled to finally reopen after a three-week closure.
Frost Tuesday morning prevented freshly-poured asphalt from fully drying overnight and delayed line repainting that was scheduled to be completed before an 8:30 a.m. news conference announcing westbound lanes were reopened and eastbound lanes were closed to kick off the second half of the construction project.
The setback of a few hours was minor compared to the several challenges Caltrans crews and a team of nine small business contractors faced as they replaced 70-year-old metal corrugated pipes with nine new concrete culverts, said Caltrans District 11 maintenance chief Shawn Rizzuto.
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"We were delayed because of several rain events," Rizzuto said. "That was challenging for us to work in the rain. There was significant rainfall through the area, which caused us quite a bit of delay to be honest with you. We were concerned about some of our slopes and the stability of our slopes, so we had to add additional shoring to accomplish the feat that you see before us."
Even still, "Work that would normally take six to nine months to complete and we did it in three weeks."
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Crews have already started work on eastbound lanes between College Boulevard and El Camino Real. A full closure is expected to last three weeks and will allow crews to dig at least 60 feet into the ground to pull up old piping and replace it with human-sized culverts. One lane of westbound SR-78 will also remain closed for crews to safely connect the piping under the median.
"We got 70 years out of the corrugated metal pipe. I expect we'll at least get 100 years out of this pipe."
The lengthy closure began March 15 when a large sinkhole appeared during one of the many atmospheric rivers San Diego has seen this winter and early spring. Workers had to excavate down 38-40 feet and then rebuild the roadway, officials said.
Caltrans originally estimated the entire construction project would cost around $20 million but it is now expected to cost much more, although Rizzuto said they won't have an exact number until the project is closer to completion. Caltrans will likely request emergency funds from the federal government since the damage was weather-related.
