Agoura Road Is Being Dug Up Once So It Won't Have to Be Dug Up Twice

On May 5, 2026, a 24-inch steel water main broke under the intersection of Lindero Canyon Road and Agoura Road. Las Virgenes Municipal Water District staff later described that intersection as "one of the busiest thoroughfares in Westlake Village." The break damaged the road and disrupted traffic until May 9. It was the third main failure at that corner since the summer of 2023.

The trench running along Agoura Road this fall comes out of that break. It also carries a pipe from a much bigger project that was already headed for the same corner. The water district chose to put both in at once, so the intersection gets one long closure now instead of several short ones over the next few years.

The Same Corner, Three Times Since 2023

The July 7, 2026 LVMWD board packet says the Lindero Canyon and Agoura intersection "has had a history of mainline leaks with similar disruptions as recent as July 2023 and August 2023." Few intersections have this much pipe under them. Potable and recycled water mains run in both directions under Lindero Canyon Road and under Agoura Road.

Each break meant an emergency excavation, a patch, and repaving. The May 2026 break is recorded as a road and traffic problem. The district's report doesn't describe any loss of water service to customers. The same pipes were still under the road with the same history, and a new pipeline was already scheduled to go through that corner a few months later.

A Pipe That Was Already on Its Way

That pipeline belongs to the Pure Water Project Las Virgenes-Triunfo. According to the board packet, a new reverse osmosis concentrate line from the district's Advanced Water Purification Facility "was scheduled to begin constructed in this intersection starting in August 2026." Instead of fixing the old mains in spring and then reopening the street in late summer for the new line, staff proposed combining the two jobs:

"Staff determined it would be beneficial to expedite the ROC pipeline design and construction to align with the mainline replacement work in this intersection. Aligning the construction timelines minimizes overall disruption within this intersection and to the residents of Westlake Village."

Staff estimated the intersection work at about $3.5 million. They recommended a $3,628,717.72 amendment to the district's on-call pipeline repair and paving contract with Toro Enterprises, Inc. That amendment also covers paving repairs after recent main breaks in Agoura Hills and extends the contract through March 31, 2027. The packet calls the work replacing and rebuilding existing utilities "involving negligible or no expansion of capacity." In other words, the aging mains are being replaced and relocated, not enlarged.

The work has since moved past the intersection. The current public notice covers Agoura Road from Lindero Canyon Road to Lakeview Canyon Road, an area the project's map shows next to Westlake Golf Course. For the week of October 12, crews were installing pipeline near Knightsgate Road and working their way west.

What the Concentrate Line Is, and Where It Goes

The name explains the pipe. The Pure Water Project takes surplus recycled water from the Tapia Water Reclamation Facility and treats it at a new purification plant at 30800 Agoura Road in Agoura Hills. The plant uses membrane filtration, reverse osmosis, and ultraviolet light with advanced oxidation. Reverse osmosis leaves behind a concentrated waste stream, and that stream needs its own way out.

The project builds a set of pipes, each with one job:

1. A 20-inch source-water line brings recycled water to the purification plant.
2. A 20- to 24-inch line carries the purified water to Las Virgenes Reservoir.
3. A 12-inch reverse osmosis concentrate line sends the leftover concentrate to the Calleguas Salinity Management Pipeline.
4. A 6-inch residuals line sends what's left to the sewer system.

The concentrate line is the one tied to the Lindero Canyon and Agoura intersection. The water that ends up in Westlake Village taps takes a different route. Purified water is blended with imported water in Las Virgenes Reservoir, then treated again at the Westlake Filtration Plant before it reaches customers. The project describes the reservoir as an "environmental buffer."

Why Build This at All

The project's own overview gives two reasons. The first is supply. The plant is designed for 7.5 million gallons per day of incoming water and can eventually expand to 18 million. Initial output is projected at about 2,100 acre-feet per year, with a goal of 5,000 acre-feet per year by 2040 as more source water becomes available.

The second is Malibu Creek. In some seasons, Tapia discharges surplus recycled water into the creek, and stricter nutrient limits apply to those discharges. According to project materials, meeting the limits without Pure Water would have meant more than $200 million in upgrades at Tapia.

The total project is estimated at $466 million. On September 18, 2026, the joint powers authority announced more than $335 million in state and federal financing. That includes $84 million from the State Water Board, of which $50 million comes from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund and $15 million is grant money, plus a $251 million EPA WIFIA loan. In January 2025, the authority had already received a $14 million U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Title XVI grant.

Measured against those figures, the roughly $3.5 million estimate for the Lindero Canyon and Agoura intersection is a small share. It covers the corner that has broken three times since 2023 and puts the new concentrate line in during the same construction window.

The Schedule Along the Corridor

The pipeline work doesn't stop at the Westlake Village city limit. The City of Thousand Oaks has published its own segment schedule. It shows Pure Water crews in nearby neighborhoods well into 2028.

The Westlake Village notice doesn't give an end date. Four to six months from an early-October start works out to roughly February through April 2027. That fits with the Toro contract running through March 31, 2027, but it's an estimate, not a published date. For the week of October 12, Thousand Oaks crews were also working on East and West Hillcrest Drive, including between SR-23 and Hodencamp Road.

The City of Thousand Oaks says the project will also close some trails. The construction management materials list the Las Virgenes Reservoir connection, the Conejo Canyons Bridge open-space trail, and Hill Canyon Fire Road as locations that need access coordination. No dates have been published for trail closures.

Driving Agoura Road Through Winter

According to the Westlake Village construction notice, regular hours are Monday through Friday, about 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. The notice also mentions daytime and nighttime construction and traffic control. The work includes removing asphalt, excavating the roadway, installing and repairing pipeline, putting in underground equipment, and temporary repaving. Drivers may see lane closures, traffic shifts, turn and parking restrictions, and flaggers. The authority says it will keep access to homes and businesses open "whenever possible."

The schedule may change with weather and field conditions, so the weekly update is the most reliable source. The project outreach team is at (818) 245-4440, and the same page has a sign-up for Westlake Village construction updates.

The purified water won't start flowing for a while. The construction FAQ lists construction through fall 2028, testing through winter 2029/2030, and operations in spring 2030. The September 2026 financing announcement also targets 2030.

At Michelle Price Realty Group, we follow infrastructure work like this because it affects how a street feels during a showing, a move, or a closing date. If you're planning a sale or purchase around Agoura Road in the coming months and want to time it with the construction schedule in mind, we invite you to request a confidential consultation.