Category: roadgeeking

We’ve made it to November. Two months to go and 2023 will be in the history books. Then comes the election year of 2024. Oh. Boy.

October has seen me finish the “scripts” for the first 10 episodes of the podcast; my attention will now turn to Route 2. The first two episodes of season 2 are now up. As always, you can keep up with the show at the podcast’s forever home at https://www.caroutebyroute.org , the show’s page on Spotify for Podcasters, or you can subscribe through your favorite podcaster or via the RSS feeds (CARxR, Spotify for Podcasters) . The following episodes have been posted this month:

• CARxR 2.01: Route 1 – Orange County (The start of a 10 episode series on Route 1. This episode focuses first on “first” highways, then LRN 1, and then all about Route 1 in Orange County)
• CARxR 2.02: Route 1 – Los Angeles County (The second episode on Route 1. This episode focuses on Route 1 in Los Angeles County)

A side effect of the new season is that I’ve discovered a number of interesting historical articles and sources. Some will be in the entries for the episodes themselves, but I’ve also saved some to the headlines list so that I’ll go through them again to update the pages. These articles will be marked in the headlines list with the Historical (Ħ) flag. Next up is recording episodes 2.03 (Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties) and 2.04 (SLO and Big Sur), and working on the Highway Pages — specifically the October and November headlines, AAroads posts, and the CTC minutes.

One last plug: For those in the cybersecurity field: Registration for the Annual Computer Security Conference is now open. Look at the program — which is strong — register for the conference, and make your hotel and travel. I hope to see you in Austin in December.

Well, you should now be up to date. Here are the headlines that I found about California’s highways for October:

Key

[Ħ Historical information | ＄ Paywalls, ＄＄ really obnoxious paywalls, and ∅ other annoying restrictions. I’m no longer going to list the paper names, as I’m including them in the headlines now. Note: For ＄ paywalls, sometimes the only way is incognito mode, grabbing the text before the paywall shows, and pasting into an editor.]

California Highways: Route by Route Podcast

The podcast is currently on a break between Season 1 and Season 2. Back episodes are available at the Podcast’s forever home, as well as on its Spotify for Podcasters home. The Spotify (nee Anchor.FM) link also has links to the podcast’s page on most major podcasting services.

Highway Headlines

• Ħ Proposed Parkway System – 1949 – Los Angeles (FB/Sharrye Hagins). Map of 1949 Proposed Parkway System
• Caltrans: We Need Complete Streets at Freeway Interchanges (CalBike).\ When Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed CalBike’s Complete Streets bill in 2019, he assured Californians that we didn’t need the mandate for safer streets. Caltrans, he noted, had new leadership and would implement the needed changes without legislation. Caltrans does appear to have made some positive changes in the past four years. CalBike is working on a report to assess how well the agency has done and where Complete Streets upgrades are lacking. Take our Complete Streets Survey.
• Monthslong closure of Highway 35 in Santa Cruz County begins (KSBW 8). Caltrans fully closed Highway 35 in the Santa Cruz Mountains as they began winter storm damage repairs on Monday. Highway 35 closed starting Monday, Oct. 2, three miles north of the junction of Hwy 35 and Hwy 17, near Bear Creek Road. Caltrans hopes to complete construction by Dec. 10. Once the work is completed, this section of Hwy 35 will remain under one-way traffic control for several weeks.
• Caltrans held a public meeting to discuss Highway 46 widening project (KSBY). Caltrans held a remote public meeting from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to discuss a proposal about converting a 3.6-mile section of Highway 46 East to a four-lane expressway in San Luis Obispo and Kern Counties. The project will include modifications such as changes to the highway alignment, avoiding high utility relocation costs, and reducing the existing grade of the highway., According to Caltrans, the antelope grade stretch sees the most volume of trucks on the central coast. The steep grade makes it harder for larger trucks to speed up causing bottleneck congestion.
• Report: Bike Lanes Can’t Make up for New Roads (Planetizen News). A new report calls on California to rethink its “traffic-creating, pave-the-earth approach to transportation,” highlighting the environmental and public health impacts of rampant freeway construction. According to an article by Melanie Curry in Streetsblog California, despite the state’s efforts to support clean air and water policies, the inertia of the status quo and a fear of change “has led to focusing on difficult but politically plausible solutions like electric vehicles, cleaning up the electricity sector, and calling for low-carbon fuels.” For the authors of the report from NextGen, those efforts are in part a distraction from lower-hanging, but more politically challenging, fruit: “As long as California keeps expanding highways to accommodate driving, all the other efforts – to increase EVs, to produce clean energy, to add bike lanes – will have been a waste of time.”
• Caltrans details plans for elevated Highway 37 causeway near Novato (Marin Independent Journal). The first phase of a massive plan to elevate Highway 37 to prevent regular inundation from sea-level rise is set to begin with an estimated $1.6 billion project in Marin. Caltrans officials held a presentation recently on the agency’s plan to rebuild a 2.5-mile section of the 21-mile North Bay commuter route as an elevated causeway from the Highway 101 interchange in Novato to the Atherton Avenue exit. The project would be the first in the agency’s plan to elevate the entire highway onto a causeway before the road connecting Marin and Solano counties becomes regularly inundated by rising sea levels, which Caltrans projects will begin in 2040.

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Happy new year to those who celebrate: Be it the new Jewish New Year, or the new US Government Fiscal New Year. We have a continuing resolution; we don’t have a shutdown—this is good news. And so: Happy New Year.

September has been muchly getting ready for the new season of the California Highways: Route by Route podcast. I’ve been busily writing episodes. This season, we’re covering Route 1 and Route 2, and I’ve written six episodes covering Route 1 from Orange County through and including San Francisco. Next to write is the episode on the Golden Gate Bridge. A side effect of this is that I’ve discovered a number of interesting historical articles and sources. Some will be in the entries for the episodes themselves, but I’ve also saved some to the headlines list so that I’ll go through them again to update the pages. These articles will be marked in the headlines list with the Historical (Ħ) flag. I’ll soon be coordinating with Tom to start recording episodes. If you think you might know a good interview subject for the following segments of Route 1, please let me know ASAP: 2.01 Orange County; 2.02 Los Angeles County; 2.03 Ventura and Santa Barbara County; 2.05 Monterey and Santa Cruz; 2.06 Pacifica and San Francisco.

I also expect to get back to working on highway page updates, now that I have a headline post to go through. First will be catching the legislative updates, as the session has concluded and bills sent to the governor for signature. My goal is to have the next update round cover September and October.

No roadtrips on the horizon, although there will be a So Cal Games Day in October.

Well, you should now be up to date. Here are the headlines that I found about California’s highways for September:

Key

[Ħ Historical information | ＄ Paywalls, ＄＄ really obnoxious paywalls, and ∅ other annoying restrictions. I’m no longer going to list the paper names, as I’m including them in the headlines now. Note: For ＄ paywalls, sometimes the only way is incognito mode, grabbing the text before the paywall shows, and pasting into an editor.]

California Highways: Route by Route Podcast

The podcast is currently on a break between Season 1 and Season 2. Back episodes are available at the Podcast’s forever home, as well as on its Spotify for Podcasters home. The Spotify (nee Anchor.FM) link also has links to the podcast’s page on most major podcasting services.

Highway Headlines

• Stretch of highway in California named after slain Indian-origin police officer (The Hindu). To honour a fallen national hero, a stretch of a highway in the US state of California has been named after 33-year-old Indian-origin police officer Ronil Singh who was shot and killed by an illegal immigrant in 2018. The stretch of Highway 33 in Newman was dedicated on Saturday to Mr. Singh from the Newman Police Department, the Modesto Bee newspaper reported. Signage proclaiming the “Corporal Ronil Singh Memorial Highway” stands at Highway 33 and Stuhr Road.
• State allocates more than $39 million to highway projects in Mendocino County (Fort Bragg Advocate-News). The California Transportation Commission allocated more than $3.1 billion for projects described as “improving the state’s transportation infrastructure, making it safer, more sustainable and more reliable,” the California Department of Transportation announced this week. According to a Caltrans press release, “the allocation includes nearly $1.8 billion in funding from the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021and almost $200 million in funding from Senate Bill (SB) 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017.” […] The projects funded in Mendocino County were listed as:
• ＄ Napa has bridge replacements planned – drivers beware (Napa Valley Register). Here is a tale of five bridges to be replaced in coming years — one smack in the city of Napa, the others farther afield — and the traffic impacts that might result. Don’t take these bridges for granted even though they cross small creeks instead of mighty rivers. You can’t get here from there without them, not without a detour. That leaves the challenge of how to handle traffic while replacement work is underway. Caltrans and Napa County are already making plans for bridge replacements that are to start in 2024 and 2025, giving plenty of advanced warning. Here’s a preview of what’s to come:
• Roundabout coming to State Route 121 and Eighth Street East intersection in Sonoma (Sonoma Index Tribune). Elected officials met at the intersection of State Route 121 and Eighth Street East on Thursday to celebrate $1.5 million in new federal funding for a roundabout to replace the current T-intersection. Leaders of the proposed roundabout project — and an accompanying bike lane — say its introduction will help increase vehicle safety, but it will require drivers to operate outside of the box — and into a circle. “During the recession years ago, (the roundabout) fell off in the shop plan,” First District Supervisor Susan Gorin said. “Sonoma County Transportation Authority) were working on the roundabout at the four corners down there. And so it just made sense for them to continue their work with Caltrans on the design.”
• September 4: This Date in Los Angeles Transportation History (Metro’s Primary Resources). 1948: Lankershim Boulevard opens to traffic under a newly completed Hollywood Freeway overpass as part of the “Barham-to-Vineland” segment of US-101. Much of the construction involved overpass accommodation for both the Pacific Electric rail lines and six lanes of freeway.
• Caltrans completes $8.7 million SB 1-funded project to repair State Route 14 in the Mojave Desert (The Ridgecrest Daily Independent). Caltrans today announced the completion of the Freeman III Project, an $8.7 million State Route 14 project that repaired 15 lane miles of pavement, stretching from one mile north of Red Rock Canyon Road to three-and-a-half miles south of the Freeman Gulch Bridge. The project was fully funded by Senate Bill (SB) 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017. The contractor Griffith Company used a sustainable partial depth recycling (PDR) technique, which supports Caltrans goal of leading climate action by recycling existing pavement. During the PDR process, crews dug out current road material in localized sections and recycled it, combining the material with Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA). The HMA was then reapplied to the excavated areas. Crews then laid a two-and-a-half-inch layer of Rubberized Hot Mix Asphalt on top of the PDR to restore the high-quality ride and serviceability of the existing roadway.
• OHLA Converting Expressway Into Freeway in California (Construction Equipment Guide). OHLA USA Inc. began work on Phase 1 of the California Department of Transportation’s (Caltrans) SR-71 Expressway to Freeway Conversion Project in spring 2021 and crews are hard at work to deliver it by summer 2025. The $174.544 million project, taking place in the city of Pomona, covers 2.7 mi. between SR 71/I-10 interchange (Mission Boulevard) and the Los Angeles/San Bernardino County Line. Phase 2 of the project, the North Segment, covers the area from the SR 71/I-10 interchange to Mission Boulevard. Construction is expected to begin next spring, with a completion in spring 2027. Thus far, OHLA USA has completed Stage 1 of the roadway jointed plain concrete pavement (JPCP) roadway project, which included demolition of existing AC/JPCP, excavation and backfill of base, placement/revisions to existing drainage systems and placement of new JPCP.

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Whew! The updates for June through August are done. Now to go back to writing scripts for the podcast. As always, “ready, set, discuss”.

This update covers June, July, and August 2023. Before we dive into the updates to the California Highways site, an update on the California Highways: Route by Route podcast. Episodes are regularly posted around the middle of the month. You can keep up with the show at the podcast’s forever home at https://www.caroutebyroute.org , the show’s page on Spotify for Podcasters, or you can subscribe through your favorite podcaster or via the RSS feeds (CARxR, Spotify for Podcasters) . The following episodes have been posted since the last update:

• July | CARxR 1.12: The Organizations of the State Highway System (where we explore the organizations behind the state highway system: Caltrans, the CTC, regional transportation agencies, and AASHTO)

Turning to the updates to the California Highways pages: Updates were made to the following highways, based on my reading of the (virtual) papers in June, July, and August 2023 (which are posted to the roadgeeking category at the “Observations Along The Road” and to the California Highways Facebook group) as well as any backed up email changes. I also reviewed the the AAroads forum (Ꜳ). This resulted in changes on the following routes, with credit as indicated [my research^(ℱ), contributions of information or leads (via direct mail or ꜲRoads) from Concrete Bob⁽²⁾, Tom Fearer (Max Rockatansky)⁽³⁾, Cameron Kaiser (ClassicHasClass)⁽⁴⁾, Occidental Tourist⁽⁵⁾, Plutonic Panda⁽⁶⁾, Skluth⁽⁷⁾, Chris Sampang (TheStranger)⁽⁸⁾, Joel Windmiller⁽⁹⁾: Route 1^(ℱ), Route 4^(ℱ), I-5^(ℱ,9), Route 7⁽³⁾,  Route 11^(ℱ), Route 12^(ℱ),  Route 14^(ℱ,3), Route 15^(ℱ,3), Route 16⁽⁹⁾, Sign Route 18⁽³⁾, Route 20^(ℱ), Route 22⁽⁵⁾, Route 25^(ℱ), Route 29^(ℱ), Route 37^(ℱ), I-40⁽⁶⁾, US 40⁽⁹⁾, Route 46^(ℱ), Route 47⁽⁶⁾, Route 49⁽³⁾, US 50⁽⁹⁾, Route 56^(3,5), Route 57^(ℱ,3), Route 58^(ℱ,7), Route 60^(ℱ), Route 68^(ℱ,2), Route 70^(ℱ), Route 72⁽³⁾,  I-80^(ℱ), Route 82^(ℱ), Route 84^(ℱ), Route 90^(ℱ), US 91⁽³⁾, Route 92^(ℱ), US 95^(ℱ,4,3),  Route 99^(ℱ), US 101^(ℱ,3), Route 115⁽³⁾, Route 116^(ℱ), Route 120⁽³⁾, Route 145⁽³⁾, Route 155^(ℱ), Route 156^(ℱ), Route 163^(ℱ), LRN 166^(ℱ), LRN 173^(ℱ), Route 186⁽³⁾, Route 188⁽³⁾, I-210⁽³⁾, Route 214⁽³⁾, Route 221^(ℱ), LRN 230^(ℱ), Route 245^(ℱ,3), Route 249⁽³⁾, Route 252^(ℱ), Route 262^(ℱ), I-380 / I-280 / Southern Crossing⁽⁸⁾, I-405^(ℱ), US 466⁽³⁾, I-580^(ℱ), I-605^(ℱ), I-680^(ℱ), I-710^(ℱ,3), County Sign Route E15⁽³⁾, County Sign Route J40⁽³⁾, County Sign Route N3⁽³⁾.
(Source: private email through 9/10/2023, Highway headline posts through the August Headline post, AARoads through 9/10/2023)

Added a new link to the list of state highway websites, as AARoads has added a page for Alaska. As a reminder, if you have a highway page for a state, and its not on the list of regional highways, please let me know.

Added a reference to the Gribblenation Blog on the 1959 Era White shields to the California Numbering page.

Reviewed the Pending Legislation page, based on the California Legislature site, for bills through 2023-09-10. As usual, I recommend to every Californian that they visit the legislative website regularly and see what their legis-critters are doing. As many people are unfamiliar with how the legislature operates (and why there are so many “non-substantive changes” and “gut and amend” bills), I’ve added the legislative calendar to the end of the Pending Legislation page. Noted the passage (or veto) of the following bills and resolutions:

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Two-thirds of the year is now past. This has been an … interesting August. We’ve had intense heat, and surprisingly, a tropical storm that has inundated our low-lying deserts and flooded roads. In the northern part of the state, we’ve had some intense brush fires. The impact of these should be showing up in future emergency road repair requests. Hopefully, everyone has been safe through all of this.

Work is continuing on the highway pages. I’ve gone through the June and July headlines; after this post is up, I’ll do the August headlines. I’ve also started working through the June and August CTC minutes. Also still to go is the review of the actions of the legislature, and the review of the posts since the last update on AARoads. Hopefully, I’ll have something to post by mid-September. I’m also working on writing the first few episodes of the next season of the podcast, so we can start recording them.

Roadtrips in July include a trip up and back to Davis, and a trip out to Las Vegas and back. Don’t care about the gambling. However, if you want to know some great restaurants in the area (off-strip), just ask.

Well, enough chit-chat. Here are the headlines that I found about California’s highways for August:

Key

[Ħ Historical information | ＄ Paywalls, ＄＄ really obnoxious paywalls, and ∅ other annoying restrictions. I’m no longer going to list the paper names, as I’m including them in the headlines now. Note: For ＄ paywalls, sometimes the only way is incognito mode, grabbing the text before the paywall shows, and pasting into an editor.]

California Highways: Route by Route Podcast

The podcast is currently on a break between Season 1 and Season 2. Back episodes are available at the Podcast’s forever home, as well as on its Spotify for Podcasters home. The Spotify (nee Anchor.FM) link also has links to the podcast’s page on most major podcasting services.

Highway Headlines

• ＄Why the lights on freeway onramp can’t end traffic jams (Los Angeles Times). It’s hard to enter a highway in Los Angeles County without encountering a stoplight at the end of the entrance ramp — a pause that’s supposed to ease the crush of rush-hour traffic. But like many Angelenos, West Valley driver Liza Olson wonders what, exactly, those lights are accomplishing. “Have you ever sat at a freeway metering light that’s red while hardly any cars zip by? Have you ever driven through a freeway metering light that’s green only to join gridlock? What gives?” Olson asked in a recent email.
• Work on Avenue J interchange begins (Antelope Valley Press). Crews will start work Monday to expand the Avenue J interchange at the Antelope Valley Freeway/State Route 14. The $28.8 million project includes widening the existing northbound on- and off-ramps. There will also be four new retaining walls and new on- and off-ramps on the south side of Avenue J. The project will be funded with Measure R funds by the city of Lancaster, Caltrans and the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Lancaster received $65 million in Meas­ure R funds about 11 years ago to make major upgrades to the highway interchanges at avenues G, J, K and L and Columbia Way (Avenue M) over the next four years to improve traffic flow and safety.
• The cost of convenience (BenitoLink). San Benito County is changing. And while it might feel like it’s sudden to some residents as they watch construction machinery and safety rails along Hwy 156 between Hollister and San Juan Bautista taking over agricultural land, it’s been over 20 years in the making. Two other transportation projects moving forward are the Hwy 25 widening, between San Felipe Road and the county line, which will eventually go to the Hwy 101/25 intersection and the new trade corridor, which is connecting Hwy 152 to Hwy 25 somewhere in the area of Shore Rd.
• Work at Paul’s Slide on Highway 1 paused as crews assess recent slide activity (KSBY). Debris removal work at Paul’s Slide on Highway 1 has been paused as crews assess recent movement of the hillside, Caltrans announced Wednesday. Geological engineering (“Geotech”) crews studying measurements of recent slide activity will determine the specific next steps for repair efforts, which have prioritized — and will continue to prioritize — the safety of crew members who have been working “almost nonstop” since March to remove slide material and stabilize the hillside, according to Caltrans.
• Recent slide activity along Hwy 1 in Big Sur could further delay reopening (KSBY). Recent slide activity along the Big Sur Coastal Highway could further delay reopening. Adam Oates, who is visiting the Central Coast from Bakersfield, originally planned to drive north with his family all the way to Monterey. But he says the road closure along the Big Sur Highway drastically reduced the distance of their trip. “Uh it cut it in half. It literally cut the distance in half,” said Oates. Though disappointed the trip would be cut short — his family still decided to visit the areas that are open. “It is what it is,” said Oates.
• Caltrans adding ‘safety and beautification’ improvements along Highway 99 (Fox 40 Sacramento). If you’re driving along Highway 99 in South Sacramento, you may look out your windshield and notice some aesthetically pleasing visuals on your journey. Those visuals are courtesy of the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), which has begun implementing “safety and beautification” improvements to Highway 99. “Working with community groups, several ‘river-themed’ additions have been added to this 9-mile stretch of the highway,” the department said in a social media post. The accompanying image shows the bright blue river covering the wall of the underpass on Broadway and Florin Road. Another image shows a light brown wall with a black design that mimics the appearance of trees on the horizon.

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Boy, we now look back fondly on the cloudy and dreary June, don’t we. It has been hot hot hot, with numerous days well over 100°, at least here in the San Fernando Valley. It makes me thankful that I (a) have LADWP (for the new Net Metering doesn’t apply to municipal electric), (b) I have a goodly sized solar system. I’ve recovered from my MOHS surgery. I haven’t had time for any road trips, but there should be some during August. I’ve also started work on the next round of updates to the highway pages, and expect those to be done sometime in September.

I’m also really happy because I finally have a reasonable solution to syncing my iTunes library to my Android phone (and am finally away from iSyncr, my previous solution). The new solution involves Syncthing, which is open-source software that runs on a variety of platforms that allows you to syncrhonize or mirror directories. So I mirror my iTunes Music library to my phone.  I then use GoneMad Media Player as my music player (as it works very well playing music stored locally on my phone, and has smart playlists).  Lastly, I have a perl script I’ve written that can take a saved stats.xml file from GMMP, combine it with the data in the iTunes Library.XML, and generate a new stats.xml file to load back into GMMP. This gives me my metadata. The script also produces copies of the playlists as .m3u files, suitable to copy to the phone. The only thing this doesn’t do is move metadata back into iTunes, but you can’t have everything. Email me if you need more details.

The last episode of the first season of the podcast is now up. Season 2 will have 10 episodes on Route 1, and two on Route 2. I’ll start writing the episodes in the next month or so, and hopefully we’ll be back in late September or October. Visit our Spotify for Podcast episodes page, our main podcast site, or use your favorite podcasting app to catch up on our back episodes. We have a 6-part series on the history of the state highway system, and a 4-part series on highway numbering.

What else? We’re still attending theatre: recent shows have included Beetlejuice at the Pantages; Cinderella at 5-Star, and Stew at the Pasadena Playhouse.

OK. You should be caught up now. Here are the headlines that I found about California’s highways for July:

Key

[Ħ Historical information | ＄ Paywalls, ＄＄ really obnoxious paywalls, and ∅ other annoying restrictions. I’m no longer going to list the paper names, as I’m including them in the headlines now. Note: For ＄ paywalls, sometimes the only way is incognito mode, grabbing the text before the paywall shows, and pasting into an editor.]

California Highways: Route by Route Podcast

• CARxR 1.12: The Organizations of the State Highway System. We close season 1 of the podcast with an episode that focuses on the organizations involved with the State Highway System. In this episode, we discuss organizations you might have heard about, but don’t know about: The California Transportation Commission, the California Coastal Commission, Caltrans, the Regional Transportation Planning Agencies, and AASHTO. After this episode we’re taking a short break, but should be back in the fall when we’ll start exploring the California state highway system, route by route.

Back episodes are available at the Podcast’s forever home, as well as on its Spotify for Podcasters home. The Spotify (nee Anchor.FM) link also has links to the podcast’s page on most major podcasting services.

Highway Headlines

• Caltrans earmarks $2.3B for future state transportation projects (The Sun-Gazette Newspaper). The California Transportation Commission recently invested close to $2 billion into improving the state’s transportation infrastructure. Not only that, the commission also approved an additional $2.3 billion for future projects in Fresno and Tulare County areas, including ones in Kingsburg, Visalia and Parlier. The nearly $2 billion allocation announced on June 29 reflects over $571 million in funding from the 2021 federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and over $257 million in funding from Senate Bill (SB) 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017.
• State grants extension for Highway 156 interchange project (KSBW 8). The Transportation Agency for Monterey County announced several extensions for the Highway 156/Castroville Boulevard project. The project, approved under Monterey County’s Measure X in 2016 by 67.7% of Monterey County voters, was initially delayed by PG&E utility relocation work. In May, TAMC announced that the project was not expected to meet all the criteria by the June 30 funding deadline. In their June meeting, the California Transportation Commission approved an environmental impact report for the project. A 12-month time extension was also approved to request the $20 million Trade Corridor Enhancement Program funding. The extension provides time for PG&E to complete the utility relocation work and for Caltrans to finish right-of-way certification.
• California Invests Nearly $2 Billion in Transportation Infrastructure, Approves Another $2.3 Billion for Future Projects (Caltrans). The California Transportation Commission (CTC) this week invested nearly $2 billion into improving the state’s transportation infrastructure while approving an additional $2.3 billion for future projects. The nearly $2 billion allocation reflects more than $571 million in funding from the 2021 federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and more than $257 million in funding from Senate Bill (SB) 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017. The $2.3 billion is comprised of $1.75 billion representing the third funding cycle of programs established by SB 1 and $540 million in active transportation projects sponsored by local metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), charting the course for future allocations. The additional $1.7 billion for future investments cover three SB 1 competitive grant programs: $1.1 billion for the Trade Corridor Enhancement Program (TCEP); $507.4 million for the Solutions for Congested Corridors Program (SCCP); and $142.4 million for the Local Partnership Program (LPP). The programs included, for the first time, input from the new Interagency Equity Advisory Committee in the evaluation of projects. This funding round also marks the first cycle to incorporate all principles of the state’s Climate Action Plan for Transportation Infrastructure.
• State Awards $132.4 Million of Infrastructure Funding to Santa Barbara Highway 101 Project (Noozhawk). The California Transportation Commission has awarded $132.4 million to the Santa Barbara portion of the massive Highway 101 project. The Santa Barbara County Association of Governments and Caltrans received the funding last week, and it is the “second highest funded project in California to receive competitive Senate Bill 1 program funding,” according to SBCAG. The award comes from the 2021 federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Senate Bill 1 grant programs, a $2 billion investment by the state.
• $132.4M Awarded to Santa Barbara Hwy 101 Multimodal Corridor Project (Edhat). The California Transportation Commission approved a $132.4 million award for the Santa Barbara U.S. 101 Multimodal Corridor Project on Wednesday in Suisun City, Solano County. The approval came as part of a $2 billion investment announced by the state from the 2021 federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and competitive Senate Bill 1 (SB1) grant programs. The commission awarded Santa Barbara County Association of Governments (SBCAG) and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) $132.4 million to complete construction of Highway 101 improvements and carpool lanes in Montecito and the City of Santa Barbara to the Hermosillo Road off-ramp, while also providing planned electric buses for Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District, coastal access improvements, zero emission vehicle charging and contactless card readers for the Coastal Express operated by the Ventura County Transportation Commission.
• County, city working on roundabout projects (Tehachapi News). Roundabouts — sometimes called traffic circles — are coming to Tehachapi. At least two projects are in the works — one in the Cummings Valley and the other at the intersection of Tucker and Highline roads in Tehachapi Valley. Jay Schlosser, development services director for the city of Tehachapi, introduced the proposed project at Tucker and Highline — at the southeastern corner of the city — to members of the City Council at a special meeting on June 29. The council, in partnership with Kern County, unanimously approved an application for funding for the project.

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We’ve now crossed into July. Half the calendar year is past. Things are starting to heat up (finally) weather-wise, here in Southern California, after a cool and dreary June. The March/April/May updates to the highway pages are done, and I’ve had a bit of a respite. With the posting of these headlines, work will comments on the next round of updates to the pages, which will probably be posted around Labor Day. Also commencing will be the writing of scripts for California Highways: Route by Route season 2, where we’re going to start going through the highways route by route. Things are just starting a little slow, as I’m recovering from MOHS surgery right under my eye — which makes wearing glasses and working at my computer a pain. Hopefully, I’ll be back up to speed in a week or two.

The last episode of the first season of the podcast was delayed due to vacations (both Tom’s and mine). Tom explored the Grand Canyon and that area of Neveda and Arizona, which is captured over on the Gribblenation blog. I did some more exploration of the California desert and mountains, having fun on Route 62 (including a visit to the World Famous Crochet Museum), Route 74, Route 86, Route 111, Route 243, and Route 371. We’re recording the last episode tonight, and it should be posted July 4th. Season 2 will have 10 episodes on Route 1, and two on Route 2. Hopefully, the sound quality is getting a bit better. I’m learning as I go on, and I think on some I overprocessed and overcompensated for breaths, creaks, and other bumps (uh) in the night. Episode 1.01 is up to 114 listens over on Spotify, and the most recent episode is at 52. Visit our Spotify for Podcast episodes page, our main podcast site, or use your favorite podcasting app to catch up on our back episodes. We have a 6-part series on the history of the state highway system, and a 4-part series on highway numbering.

What else? We’re back to attending theatre regularly, although I haven’t started writing reviews again. Last night was Into the Woods at the Ahmanson Theatre (an excellent production about a road trip). I’m also going to mention an interesting project from a work colleague of mine: Bob Clemons. Bob is doing a bicycle trip he’s calling “Pier to Pier”, where he is riding from the Santa Monica Pier in California to the Steel Pier in New Jersey, mostly along Route 66. He’s been doing a daily photo/commentary log you can find here. I’m finding it fascinating: both for his love of the road, his love of courthouses, and his love of beer flights.

OK. You should be caught up now. Here are the headlines that I found about California’s highways for June:

Key

[Ħ Historical information | ＄ Paywalls, ＄＄ really obnoxious paywalls, and ∅ other annoying restrictions. I’m no longer going to list the paper names, as I’m including them in the headlines now. Note: For ＄ paywalls, sometimes the only way is incognito mode, grabbing the text before the paywall shows, and pasting into an editor.]

California Highways: Route by Route Podcast

• No episodes posted in June. We’re recording episode 1.12 today, on the organizations of the state highway system, and it should be posted on Tuesday, July 4.

Back episodes are available at the Podcast’s forever home, as well as on its Spotify for Podcasters home. The Spotify (nee Anchor.FM) link also has links to the podcast’s page on most major podcasting services.

Highway Headlines

• Onramp on 57 Freeway in San Dimas causing dangerous rollover crashes; residents call on Caltrans to possibly add guardrails (ABC7 Los Angeles). There’s a dangerous onramp on the 57 Freeway in San Dimas that’s reportedly caused multiple vehicles to roll down into a shopping center parking lot down below. According to business owners, nearly a dozen drivers have slid off the northbound onramp from Bonita Avenue and the Arrow Highway, sending their vehicles tumbling down. Surveillance video shared with Eyewitness News captured an SUV sliding off the onramp and rolling over multiple times. It happened around 5 p.m. on Wednesday.
• Damage to Hwy 178 appears to be getting worse, Caltrans gives no estimate for reopening (KGET Bakersfield). Highway 178 has been closed for five days due to road damage and it appears that road cracks have gotten bigger. A fleet of Caltrans engineers and a geologist from Sacramento are assessing the damage to the road. Their report will determine possible solutions and a timeline for repairs. There are some complications with fixing the road. One is the surging Kern River impeding future repairs but a solution for that is already in the works.
• Placer County commissions plan for North Lake Tahoe highway transit improvements (Sierra Sun). Placer County is continuing efforts to address traffic concerns and enhance transit along state routes 89 and 267 in North Lake Tahoe with short-term and long-term improvements. The Placer County Board of Supervisors last week approved a $511,838 contract with Wood Rodgers Inc. to create a strategic implementation and phasing plan to advance implementation along the two corridors, both of which connect Interstate 80 to North Lake Tahoe. The plan will include collaboration with stakeholder groups such as Caltrans, the Town of Truckee, emergency responders, local businesses and residents in the region. The plan will expand on the transportation recommendations provided in the county’s Resort Triangle Transportation Plan that the board approved in October 2020. The RTTP outlined initiatives to reduce traffic, get people out of their cars, encourage alternative commuting options and address congestion.
• Granite wins $29M Highway 1 project (Construction Dive). Granite Construction will be going to the beach this summer after winning a $29 million contract to widen California’s iconic Highway 1 in Santa Cruz. Work includes the construction of four retaining walls, one soldier pile retaining wall and a 650-foot-long box girder pedestrian bridge over Highway 1 at Chanticleer Avenue, according to a Granite news release. The Watsonville, California-based contractor will widen the freeway in both directions from Soquel Avenue in Santa Cruz to 41st Avenue in nearby Capitola, with an additional lane of travel in each direction added to the existing earth median.
• Konocti Corridor Ribbon Cutting Ceremony (Redheaded Blackbelt). The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) will host a ribbon cutting ceremony for the completion of the $85 million first segment of the Konocti Corridor Project on Wednesday, June 7 in Lake County. This project is a cooperative effort funded by Caltrans, the Lake County Area Planning Council (LAPC), and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). Located between the communities of Lower Lake and Kelseyville, the new three-mile segment of State Route 29 was widened to a four-lane expressway to improve safety.
• Big Sur Likely to Be Inaccessible From Highway 1 From the South Through the Summer as Cleanup Work Continues (SFist). The southern route into Big Sur on Highway 1 is going to be closed for the next several months, Caltrans says, in an update on the progress of work to clear debris from a major landslide that occurred this past winter. Big Sur residents and much of Northern California is well aware that whenever we have a rainy winter, it’s likely to mean Big Sur will be cut off from civilization for some period of time. The land above and below Highway 1 in the Big Sur area is pretty dynamic in general, with dirt, sand, and rocks that are slowly trying to make their way to the ocean, and Mother Nature frequently having a laugh at the expense of California’s highway engineers who insist on maintaining a road there. This year’s big slide happened at an area called Paul’s Slide — though this was far from the only debris slide this rainy season. A section of Highway 1 here was partly inundated by dirt and debris as far back as January, as California got pummeled by heavy rains. But then Paul’s Slide did what it has done in the past, sliding in a major way in mid-March and completely burying the roadway.

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We’re up to the second update of 2023. We’ve made it to the other side of the atmospheric river, although we’re still picking up the pieces, cleaning up the mud, and blowing away the snow. We’re getting ready to enter the summer driving season. A few 3-day weekends have afforded me the time to finish off the highway page updates. This update has been mostly the usual changes, although Joel provided some more route adoption maps.  The text below is drawn from the website 2023 Changelog.

This update covers March, April, and May 2023. Before we dive into the updates to the California Highways site, an update on the California Highways: Route by Route podcast. Episodes are regularly posted around the middle of the month. You can keep up with the show at the podcast’s forever home at https://www.caroutebyroute.org , the show’s page on Spotify for Podcasters, or you can subscribe through your favorite podcaster or via the RSS feeds (CARxR, Spotify for Podcasters) . The following episodes have been posted since the last update:

• March | CARxR 1.09: Highway Numbering: Interstate Highways (where we explore all things Interstate: history of the system, chargeable/non-chargeable, numbering, California’s submissions, and more).
• April | CARxR 1.10: Highway Numbering: County Signed Routes (where we complete our exploration of numbering of state highways by turning our attention to the County Signed Route system)
• May | CARxR 1.11: Highway Numbering (where we explore how highways get their names)

Turning to the updates to the California Highways pages: Updates were made to the following highways, based on my reading of the (virtual) papers in January and February 2023 (which are posted to the roadgeeking category at the “Observations Along The Road” and to the California Highways Facebook group) as well as any backed up email changes. I also reviewed the the AAroads forum (Ꜳ). This resulted in changes on the following routes, with credit as indicated [my research^(ℱ), contributions of information or leads (via direct mail or ꜲRoads) from  Lori Aivazian⁽²⁾, Michael Ballard⁽³⁾, bing101⁽⁴⁾, Juan Espinosa⁽⁵⁾, Tom Fearer⁽⁶⁾, Joe Rouse⁽⁷⁾, splashflash⁽⁸⁾, Jim White⁽⁹⁾, and Joel Windmiller⁽¹⁰⁾: Route 1^(ℱ,10),  Route 4⁽¹⁰⁾, Route 3^(ℱ), I-5^(ℱ), Sign Route 6⁽⁶⁾, Sign Route 8⁽⁶⁾, I-10⁽⁶⁾, Route 12^(ℱ), Route 14^(ℱ),  I-15^(ℱ), Route 20⁽¹⁰⁾, Sign Route 26⁽⁶⁾, Route 29^(ℱ), Route 37^(ℱ,7),  I-40^(ℱ), Route 41^(ℱ,6), Route 46^(ℱ), Route 47^(ℱ), Route 49^(ℱ,6), Route 54⁽⁶⁾, Route 55⁽⁶⁾, Route 58^(ℱ), Route 62⁽⁶⁾, Route 67^(ℱ), Route 70⁽⁸⁾, Route 71^(ℱ),  I-80^(ℱ), Route 84⁽⁶⁾, Route 87⁽¹⁰⁾, Sign Route 88⁽⁶⁾, Route 91^(ℱ,5), US 95⁽⁶⁾, Route 99^(ℱ), US 101^(ℱ,6), Route 107⁽⁹⁾, Route 108⁽⁶⁾, Route 118^(ℱ,2), Route 123^(ℱ), Route 134⁽³⁾, Route 141⁽⁶⁾, Route 148⁽⁴⁾, Route 154^(ℱ), Route 160⁽¹⁰⁾, Route 197^(ℱ), US 199^(ℱ), Route 222^(ℱ), Route 230⁽¹⁰⁾, Route 240⁽⁶⁾, Route 243⁽⁶⁾, Route 247^(ℱ), Route 273^(ℱ), I-380^(ℱ), US 395^(ℱ), I-580^(ℱ), I-605⁽⁶⁾, I-680⁽⁶⁾, I-780⁽⁶⁾, Route 905^(ℱ), I-980^(ℱ), County Sign Route R2^(ℱ).
(Source: private email through 5/31/2023, Highway headline posts through the Mary Headline post, AARoads through 5/27/2023

Reviewed the Pending Legislation page, based on the California Legislature site, for bills through 2023-05-28. As usual, I recommend to every Californian that they visit the legislative website regularly and see what their legis-critters are doing. As many people are unfamiliar with how the legislature operates (and why there are so many “non-substantive changes” and “gut and amend” bills), I’ve added the legislative calendar to the end of the Pending Legislation page. We are still in the early days of a new legislative session, so at this point bills mostly are in committee. Welcome to the 2023-2024 session, folks.

Reviewed the online agenda of the California Coastal Commission. This covered the March, April, and May meetings:

• (April) April 2023 Application No. 4-22-0459 (Caltrans). Application of Caltrans to replace the Northbound and Southbound US 101 bridges at Refugio Creek with new clear span bridges with five traffic lanes, standard bridge railings and shoulders, fish passage improvements, pedestrian path upgrades, and restoration of public parking on Refugio Rd., near Refugio State Beach in unincorporated Santa Barbara County. (Note: The Commission’s enforcement division has opened an investigation into potential Coastal Act violations associated with this item and site, as explained further in the staff report.) (JS-V)
• (May) May 2023 Informational Update on Caltrans Highway 101 Last Chance Grade Permanent Restoration Project. Informational update by Caltrans on the status of the upcoming Last Chance Grade Permanent Restoration Project involving alternatives that include, but are not limited to, reengineering the existing roadway, constructing a series of retaining walls, and/or constructing a 10,000-ft.-long tunnel along a 3.5-mile-long section of US 101 in Del Norte County (post mile 12.0 to 15.5) within Redwood National and State Parks from about 9 miles south of Crescent City to Wilson Creek.

I checked California Transportation Commission page for the results of the March and May 2023 meetings of the California Transportation Commission. As always, note that I tend not to track items that do not impact these pages — i.e., pavement rehabilitation or replacement, landscaping, drainage, culverts, roadside facilities, charging stations, or other things that do not impact the routing or history, unless they are really significant. As such, the following items were of interest:

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