Caltrans Work on El Camino @ Maple

Town staff has been working with Caltrans and California Water Services Company (CalWater) in the past couple months for the repair of a sinkhole that developed at the El Camino Real/Maple Avenue intersection. The underlying cause for the sinkhole has been confirmed and identified by Calwater and Caltrans. After much investigation that included a valve replacement and a replace/transfer of a 2-inch residential water service, we are glad to report that repairs of the intersection are now underway and nearing completion. 

CalWater started repair of the sinkhole on Monday August 5. They began by removing the plates and excavating the initial estimated extents of the underlying cavity.  As excavation began, it became evident that the cavity was larger than originally estimated, so the excavation area was expanded.  Materials were removed and the area compacted.  During this process, an additional soft spot was encountered.  The soft spot was further excavated and initially backfilled with base rock to allow for further investigation on the following day.  The firmly compacted area was backfilled with a sand/concrete slurry mix to act as a base for future paving. The remaining area was temporarily filled with base rock. 

On Tuesday August 6, CalWater further expanded the excavation area to remove the materials from the soft spot and backfilled and recompacted with base rock, followed with a sand/concrete slurry mix as the base for paving.  The overall area of excavation is estimated at 19 feet wide by 14 feet long. The area remains coned off as the slurry dries to allow for paving.  It is anticipated that the area should be paved tomorrow, and the roadway opened on Friday. We thank you for your patience during this time as area stakeholders worked to fix the issue.