Improvements to Naval Weapons gate to improve traffic congestion

Improvements to the Naval Weapons Station gate on Ammunition Road west of Alturas are moving forward and a completion date of March 26, 2012 has been announced.

“The contract [for the work] was awarded on Sept. 28. Construction will begin on Jan. 19 and involve five to six phases of work over about 60 days,” explained Bill Eich, Deputy Public Works Officer, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, at the Dec. 15 meeting of the Fallbrook Revitalization Council held at Fallbrook Public Utility District.

A collaborative effort was used to find a solution to the somewhat complex situation that involved multiple agencies. The resolution appears to be in the works much quicker than anticipated.

“This was a potentially complicated collaborative effort but all the right people came together on this,” said Vince Ross, chairman of the revitalization council.

Anne Burdick, a member of the Fallbrook Community Planning Group involved in the effort, said she couldn’t be more pleased with the timely outcome.

“I am happy to be able to have an opportunity to thank those who have collaborated on this project,” Burdick said to representatives of the county, state, and military installations present at the meeting.

Don Kinney, representative for Congressman Darrell Issa, added his kudos.

“Everybody came together to get this done as soon as possible.”

The Naval Weapons Station has established a budget of $653,000 for the gate improvements and awarded the work contract to TEEHEE Engineering Inc.

“We had to keep the cost under $750,000 or else we would have had to take this before Congress for approval, which would have greatly delayed the process,” said Eich.

During the construction process, traffic will be impacted, Eich said, adding that the result “will be worth it.”

“We do expect things to be worse during those two months but we will always keep at least one lane open in each direction at all times,” he said. “We will send out commuter information so people know what to expect.”

Eich, who is a longtime resident of Fallbrook, said the amount of improvement in the traffic congestion leading in and out of the Base will most likely be 50 to 75 percent.

“Currently we are processing 375 to 560 vehicles per hour through the NWS gate,” said Eich. “With this improvement, it will improve to between 600 and 900 per hour.

Traffic growth over the past decade has led to the current congestion.

“In 2001, they were processing 1,684 vehicles every two hours; in 2007, 1,846 every two hours; and in 2011, we are getting 1,963 every two hours,” explained Eich.

“As a result of this improvement, there will be two full lanes leading into the Base and one leading out,” he explained. “We are also adding another sentry post and more security barriers.” And this project is looking ahead to future improvements.

“We are also configuring our alignment to work with the County [of San Diego] so when they put two lanes in each direction on Ammunition Road from South Mission it all flows smoothly.” No timeline was given for when the County might embark on that expansion.

Anthony Winicki, director of the Fallbrook Naval Weapons Station, said the improvement is not only being done to support military personnel, but also the civilian work force on base.

“It comes down to improving quality of life,” said Winicki.

According to Eich, Camp Pendleton is comprised of 125,000 acres that includes 2,800 buildings and structures, and 7,300 family housing units. It serves 79,000 members of the military and their family members with 46,229 of those living on the base. In addition, he said, the base has over 10,000 civilian workers.

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