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Unpaved Section of Highway 173 Closing Next Month
By Michael P. Neufeld

Lake Arrowhead, CA - It's now official. CalTrans will be permanently closing the unpaved portion of Highway 173 between Lake Arrowhead and Hesperia next month. The press release issued by the transportation agency didn't indicate an exact date but stated the closure would take place "in early March 2011."

The closure of the unpaved portion of Highway 173 between Lake Arrowhead and Hesperia will become reality in March when CalTrans permanently closes the roadway.

District 8 Director Dr. Raymond Wolfe has told community meetings in a host of mountain communities that safety is the primary reason for the closure.

"The roadway is narrow, unpaved, and in many areas does not have two travel lanes for the safe passage of opposing vehicles," Dr. Wolfe informed the town hall sessions.

CalTrans District 8 Director Dr. Raymond Wolfe announced during a series of community meetings in Big Bear, Running Springs and Crestline his agency had decided to close the unpaved section of Highway 173 between Lake Arrowhead and Hesperia.

Numerous residents in the area voiced their concern about closing the five-mile section of roadway because the route had been used in the past as an escape route during wildfires. The route remains the only unpaved section of state highway in California in which the travel way is comprised of dirt.
Closure Area

CalTrans will close Highway 173 from west of the original closure at Willow Creek Road, downhill to east of Arrowhead Lake Road, just east of Hesperia.

A CalTrans press release indicates the decision to close the roadway was made by transportation officials late last year based on safety concerns for the motoring public.

Those Cal-Trans sissies would have a heart attack on some of our "highways".


They aught to just turn it over to the USFS so it can continue to be used as a forestry road.

Chazz Layne wrote:Those Cal-Trans sissies would have a heart attack on some of our "highways".


They aught to just turn it over to the USFS so it can continue to be used as a forestry road.

I'd guess that will happen if they actually "de-commission" that part of the highway, so that it can be taken out of state service....at least I hope so..

If this is State property, I think it would be a terrible mistake to turn it over to the Feds. They own enough of the State of California already. There has to be a way to keep the road open, just as there are many other state owned dirt roads that are open today.

One winter season will make parts of this road impossible for passenger cars.

DaveK wrote:If this is State property, I think it would be a terrible mistake to turn it over to the Feds. They own enough of the State of California already. There has to be a way to keep the road open, just as there are many other state owned dirt roads that are open today.

I think the state would keep it open...if it were minimally two lanes wide, and paved.
Given that traffic is minimal by comparison, I don't think they're going to spend the money to widen and pave it.
I would hope that it at least gets assumed by the Forest Circus. It could provide access in and out during fires.

That's a drag. When I lived in Berdoo as a teenager I didn't have a 4x4 & neither did my friends, so we'd drive all the way around to Hesperia and hike to deep creek. Now that I'm a grown up with my own Jeep I had hopes of driving down from Arrowhead when we visit the San Bernardino Mountains. Go figure.

So will this close the section between the Pilot Rock Trail and Willow Creek Road or is this section passed all of that?