BRIDGE DRAWS A CROWD NEW SANTA CLARITA ACCESS OPENS TO POMP AND PROTESTS.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - An $8 million stretch of what eventually will be a key east-west access across Santa Clarita opened Wednesday - a bridge linking Wiley Canyon Road and Via Princessa.

Planned for more than a dozen years, the four-lane bridge spans San Fernando Road, the Santa Clara River's South Fork and the Union Pacific railroad tracks that create the border between Valencia and Saugus.

``This is so exciting to have this new access,'' Mayor Jo Anne Darcy said.

Sharing the stage at the celebration, though, were a half-dozen protesters calling for the city to open another key route to ease traffic circulation. The group, carrying placards and hastily penned signs, demanded the opening of the Valley Street-Calgrove Boulevard artery in Newhall, designated on city and Los Angeles County maps as a thruway.

A gate open only to select residents sits on a sliver of private land between those two public roads, forcing through-traffic onto the southwestern end of Wiley.

``They spend all this money to open a new road, but they close a public road,'' Calgrove-area resident Danny Bobroff said. ``By opening this road and closing Valley-Calgrove, they're diverting too much traffic onto Wiley and past Wiley Canyon School.''

City officials countered that any changes in traffic patterns on Wiley Canyon Road will be included in an environmental study under way to determine whether the city will open Valley at Calgrove.

Protesters have complained that the study is unnecessary, but Terri Maus, the city's director of field services, said Santa Clarita is required to weigh traffic impacts in a formal study before taking action either way on the gate issue.

Still the debate didn't detract from the celebration of the new bridge, which includes decorative tile siding and a separate bike lane protected from vehicle traffic. Beazer Homes, developing housing in the Circle J area on the east side of the bridge, paid a $4.1 million share of the construction. The city contributed $4.4 million.

Plans call for eventually widening the bridge to six lanes when segments of Via Princessa in Canyon Country and Saugus are linked.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, map

Photo:

(1 -- color) The new bridge spans San Fernando Road, the Santa Clara River's South Fork and the Union Pacific railroad tracks.

(2 -- color) Thierry Allen, who lives on the Wiley Canyon side of the new bridge, rides his bike one last time before it opened.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer

Map: A New Bridge