Category: Ridge Route News

What makes the Ridge Route so unique?

Really, what is so special about this road? What makes it worthy of such preservation efforts? The Ridge Route is more than just a scenic path through the northern Angeles National Forest. It is more than a roadway that helped bring together, and keep together, the state of California. The roadway is a time capsule, from really no later than 1930, showing how roads were first built in the modern age. This roadway was the first of its kind, still using manual labor and some steam shovels, to build a brand new roadway across open terrain. No other roadway in California, and possibly even the US, has such a long section of paving intact from such an early period. No other roadway retains the methods of construction as the Ridge Route does. Other roads were upgraded, with curves or short sections bypassed. Other roads may have even been obliterated with the advent of freeways.

The Ridge Route represents so much to so many. It is that which makes it more than worthy for the efforts to preserve it. We have the ability to save it. We need your support to do it. Without that support, this roadway could well be lost to time and development, depriving those in the future of an opportunity to see where things came from.

Right of Way issues along the road

All roadways, regardless of their designation, have some sort of right-of-way. Before things got to be a bit more standard and better documented, these could change at the whim of, well, most anyone. Modern roads have designated paths, carved through other properties. Depending on circumstances, these paths can be either an easement, owned lands, or some other method.

Roads such as the Ridge Route were granted an easement through existing public, in this case federal, lands. Such easements were quite common during the period. Even today, not all the land along a roadway is owned by the agency that maintains the road. An example of this is State 39 – San Gabriel Canyon Road – in the San Gabriel Mountains north of Azusa. Caltrans maintains the right-of-way through the forest, but does not own the right-of-way. The highway was granted an easement through the forest, with the provision that, should the roadway be abandoned, the road would be returned to its “natural state”. This particular issue has been a problem for Caltrans as they have wanted to abandon a section of 39 that has been closed since 1978. To return it to a natural state would well exceed any costs to rehabilitate the roadway and open it.

The Ridge Route, however, is a different animal. While, at present, the County of Los Angeles has vacated the roadway (a nice way to say abandoned), the Angeles National Forest does wish to keep the roadway available for their use. Where our issue lies is with the easement itself. As the easement was granted before the landowner on the south end obtained their land, their land has this easement. As the roadway was illegally vacated and the easements not properly maintained, they are using that as an opportunity to claim the road as their own.

Illegal signage declaring a portion of the Ridge Route as a “private” roadway.

Previously, we posted that the Angeles National Forest is actively maintaining the roadway, at least by 2009, by performing an AC (Asphaltic Concrete) overlay on the southern end of the Ridge Route. This overlay shows unquestionably that the Forest Service is maintaining the roadway. No monies for this maintenance came from the landowner.

We need your help to fight this. We are demanding the County of Los Angeles rescind their road vacation and quitclaim the road to the Forest Service. This would properly transfer any and all easements for the road and allow the PUBLIC to enjoy this historic treasure.

Ridge Route Online Petition

Hello all,

The Ridge Route in Southern California needs your help. The Ridge Route Preservation Organization has put together an online petition to help get the roadway back open and in working order. It has not been fully open to traffic since 2005 and is in need of your support. Please sign this petition to get the legislators and the Angeles National Forest to fix what they did wrong. More details are on the site for the petition. The petition was posted a while ago, but has not yet been posted on this site.

Thank you for your time and efforts!

http://www.change.org/p/help-save-the-old-ridge-route-road?recruiter=558871232

Why is the road closed?

Many ask why the Ridge Route is closed. The reasons are many, however, the roadway being traversable is not among those. Prior to January 2005, the roadway had three gates. One near the Tumble Inn, another near Reservoir Summit, and a gate about 3/4 mile north of Templin Highway. These gates would usually get closed during periods of inclement weather to protect the roadway. The January 2005 storm changed that and we are still dealing with those effects.

Resulting from the immense amount of rainfall, unstable geology, and lack of maintenance, a few sections of roadway gave way, making the road impassable for a time. Other landslides in the area also caused problems for the oil and gas pipelines that cross the mountains on a similar path to the Ridge Route. One such pipeline broke near Pyramid Lake, which came close to spilling oil into the lake, which is a major source of drinking water for Los Angeles. The US Forest Service closed the roadway at that point for an indefinite period of time. Initially, the roadway between the north (Tumble Inn) and south (Templin Highway) gates was under a “forest closure order”, which meant that the public was not only not allowed into that area, but could be heavily fined as well. This was done to allow the pipeline companies the ability to repair their lines without interference. The roadway was at least partly protected during this period, where the pipeline companies were limited as to how large a truck could traverse the road, how long they could stand in one spot, loads were limited, and portions of roadway were also temporarily covered to reduce damage.

In addition to the pipeline repairs, the roadway itself got some needed work done. Using funds and support from the US Department of Transportation, the sections of the Ridge Route that had slid were repaired and repaved using the original methods and specifications. New concrete was poured, which was 4 1/2″ thick, 20′ wide, and reinforced with steel. These repairs, in addition to other work along the road, made the road passable again by a standard automobile. Still, with this work done, the roadway was not opened to the public.

It took a few years, but the pipeline crews finished their work. The forest closure order was lifted, allowing people to traverse the roadway again. The gates, however, were still not opened. The gates remain closed, despite the roadway being repaired. The road is still closed because of land ownership issues resulting from the County of Los Angeles vacating the roadway in 2005. Once these issues are cleared, mostly regarding a land owner on the south end of the road that is claiming the road as their own, the roadway should be opened again.

So, for those that wish to travel on the Ridge Route between the gates, it is open, but not for motor vehicles. Bicycles, horses, and pedestrians are the only ones allowed, for now.