15-Year Highway Project Comes to Close
Amid mixed emotions from the Chumash Indian community, Caltrans on Tuesday celebrated the completion of the California Highway 126 widening project.
It took 15 years and $60.6 million to widen from two to four lanes the 32-mile stretch from the Golden State Freeway near Santa Clarita to Santa Paula in Ventura County.
Much of the work was done on Chumash burial grounds, but members of the Indian community supported the expansion at Tuesday’s roadside ceremony near the Chiquita Canyon exit.
The event ended with a blessing ritual by Chumash Indian spiritual leader Alan Salazar, who served as a consultant on the expansion project.
“This is extremely difficult for a lot of reasons,” Salazar said. “But we can’t stop development. We haven’t been able to stop it for the last 500 years.”
The remains were reburied in a private ceremony, a Chumash spokeswoman said.
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