Santa Maria Sun / News

Judge orders suspension of Cold Spring Canyon Bridge barrier project

BY JEREMY THOMAS

Construction of a suicide barrier on Cold Spring Canyon Bridge halted again Aug. 24 after a county judge denied a motion filed by Caltrans to continue the controversial project while environmental impact reports are reviewed.

In court documents, Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Thomas Anderle said Caltrans shouldn’t be allowed to proceed with construction of the 10-foot-tall barrier until Caltrans’ proposal goes through all the processes defined by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

“It would defeat CEQA’s interactive process to allow Caltrans to remain inalterably committed to the grid/mesh alternative—and to proceed with its construction by drilling holes in the bridge and fabricating its panel—prior to its proper compliance with CEQA,” Anderle wrote.

Caltrans had requested that construction workers be allowed to continue the “behind the scenes” work while a revised Environmental Impact Report (EIR) was re-circulated.

“Caltrans looks forward to complying with the court ruling to complete the environmental review and then move forward with the barrier project,” Caltrans spokesman Colin Jones told the Sun.

The court’s decision comes on the heels of a July 13 ruling in favor of a writ of mandate filed by the civic group Friends of the Bridge, which seeks to block suicide barriers from going up. In that ruling, the court determined Caltrans violated the state’s Environmental Quality Act by circulating a draft EIR that didn’t include mitigation measures for the project’s “aesthetic and historic” impacts.

“Judge Anderle’s ruling today confirms the importance of the public’s role in the CEQA process, by ensuring that the public can now meaningfully weigh in on the mitigation measures and other information withheld in the initial draft EIR” Marc Chytilo, attorney for Friends of the Bridge, said in a statement. “In light of the Judge’s July 13 ruling, and this clarification, Friends is hopeful that the recirculation process will yield a better project that addresses the safety concerns on Cold Springs Canyon Bridge, while also protecting the Bridge’s historic and aesthetic integrity.”

Caltrans’ Jones said contractors would remove, as requested by Friends of the Bridge, the temporary orange fencing currently installed on the bridge by Sept. 3.

In court briefs, Caltrans stated its intention to re-circulate the EIR for public comment between Sept. 10 and Oct. 25. No further construction of the barrier may proceed until the public comment period concludes and Caltrans certifies a legally adequate Environmental Impact Report.