Pothole repairs on the 71 Freeway affect commuters through the weekend

The 71 Freeway is getting some maintenance as pothole repairs close portions of the freeway.

Full road closure of the freeway started Tuesday night near the Holt Avenue exit as about 30 vehicles stalled out with flat tires from the potholes on the roadway last week.

Caltrans said the plague of potholes is due to the recent rains mixed with the number of heavy trucks and the volume of cars passing through the thoroughfare daily.   So why was it taking so long to get all the potholes fixed? It turns out there is split jurisdiction of the 71 Freeway between Caltrans and an independent contractor.

Caltrans owns the 71 Freeway, but only has jurisdiction over part of it. The rest is controlled by the U.S. division of a Madrid-based construction company, Obrascón Huarte Lain, S.A. or OHLA. 

Caltrans ceded control over part of the freeway to OHLA for an $86 million project to upgrade about two miles of the 71 to convert it from an expressway to a full highway. 

This split custody only allows Caltrans to fill some potholes "to a certain point,"  leaving the rest to the contractor. This weekend OHLA  is the one out doing the repairs, creating some overnight full closures.

The entire northbound section which closed Friday night reopens Saturday at 9 a.m. The northbound lanes will close again on Tuesday from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Wednesday.

The southbound lanes will close on Saturday from 11 p.m. to 10 a.m. Sunday, then again on Monday from 10 p.m. to Tuesday 6 a.m. 

After the recent storms battered southland roadways, Caltrans reported over a five-day period just over a week ago, they filled nearly 600 different potholes in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties alone -- and repairs continue.