While work crews with Southern California Edison make the skies over Santa Clarita Valley safer by attaching visible marker balls to overhead wires, the work means temporary road closures throughout the week.
Marker balls are orbs the size of beach balls fitted to wires, serving to warn pilots about the presence of wires in their path.
On Tuesday, two days after a fatal plane crash in Agua Dulce now under investigation, workers for the utility were expected to begin using a helicopter to attach lights and marker balls to wires in a handful of locations.
Emergency first responders could not confirm one way or the other whether the plane hit any wires before the crash.
Although installing marker balls is a regular exercise carried out by the utility, Edison officials were asked Monday when they made the decision to install the latest marker balls around the SCV.
Edison spokespeople did not disclose when exactly the decision was made to install the latest series of marker balls.
“SCE is installing marker balls in Santa Clarita to meet Federal Aviation (Administration) requirements,” Edison spokeswoman Sally Jeun told The Signal Monday.
“We’re working with local authorities for the periodic road closures at Newhall Ranch, Kelly Johnson, Copper Hill and McBean until mid-March,” she said.
“Each road closure can last five to 10 minutes,” she said.
Each day’s work means a different road closed in the SCV from about 7 a.m. to dusk.
“This work will be done from the Pardee Substation near Rye Canyon Road to northern Bouquet Canyon Road, near Haskell Open Space,” Shirley Miller, with the SCV Sheriff’s Station wrote in a post on the station’s Facebook page.
“Temporary lane closures may be required,” she wrote.
“The periodic road closures, up to 10-15 minutes at a time, to accommodate the utility’s work will take place in the below areas on the specified dates, however, we don’t know the exact areas of the intersections on the streets that will be closed,” Miller wrote.
“We ask the public to keep the possibility of road closures in mind so that they can allow extra time to get to their destination if they are travelling to one of the affected areas,” she wrote.
On Tuesday, streets in affected by the work include Newhall Ranch Road, Rye Canyon Road, Kelly Johnson Parkway, Alta Vista Avenue.
On Wednesday, the work will impact Copperhill Drive.
Work continues on Thursday on McBean Parkway, then shifts back to Copperhill on Friday.
The work is expected to continue until mid-March.
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