California Highway Headlines for April 2016 – Observations Along the Road

userpic=roadgeeking Here are the collected headlines and other identified articles of interest from April 2016 related to California Highways:

Roadshow: Is new Valley Fair interchange dangerous? This man’s son died there. Q I was riveted by your column about the traffic problems at Interstate 280 and I-880 near Valley Fair, and the drivers who related near-accidents. My second son, Michael Boys, was thrown from his motorcycle and killed at that interchange on Dec. 4 soon after the construction was finished. My other sons and I have visited the scene, and it appears to us as well that there are really serious problems that make this a dangerous intersection. He was exiting 280 for 880 north, and that seems the focus of the other people who wrote in.
After decade of planning, Hwy 80 interchange reconstruction project gets underway in San Pablo. Following a decade of planning, a $118.8 million project to improve a major Interstate Highway 80 bottleneck in San Pablo is getting underway. Elected officials and local transportation leaders gathered Friday to celebrate the beginning of reconstruction work on Highway 80’s more than 50-year-old San Pablo Dam Road interchange.
Lakehead’s New Antlers Bridge Gets Artsy. How about this fish story? Twenty-five-foot largemouth bass spotted at Shasta Lake. It’s not a stretch—it’s art. A design featuring two colorful concrete bass leaping at minnows is repeated four times on the new Antlers Bridge under construction on Interstate 5 about 25 miles north of Redding. If you want to catch it, look fast. There’s an eye-level view of the lunkers—one measuring 25 feet and the other stretching 16 feet—from the current Antlers Bridge spanning the lake’s Sacramento Arm at Lakehead. When traffic switches to the new bridge, which is expected to happen in late summer or fall, the I-5 blur-by will no longer be a viewing option.

Fossils Unearthed Along State Route 15 in San Diego. A small whale bone sticking out from a sandstone bluff alerted Caltrans crews working on a bikeway along state Route 15 that something very different once passed through there. Caltrans called San Diego Natural History Museum paleontologist Rodney Hubscher to the site. He said the small fragment is from the fin of a whale that swam through the area 3.5 million years ago.
INTERSTATE 15: New Temecula Parkway interchange delayed. The long line of cars that forms on southbound Interstate 15 ahead of the Temecula Parkway off-ramp endures. The city of Temecula has pushed back the expected start of construction on a new Temecula Parkway interchange, designed to shrink that long line of cars and improve traffic flow in the southern part of the city, to late 2016 because of issues involving the relocation of utilities in the region.
Council turns up heat on Kettle: Local reps question transit director over proposed tax hike. The head of the Ventura County Transportation Commission faced tough questions from the Thousand Oaks City Council last week during his presentation on a possible countywide half-cent sales tax increase being floated for November. VCTC Executive Director Darren Kettle was in town March 22 to share details of the proposal, which would raise about $70 million a year for 30 years to fund a variety of transit improvements. Two previous attempts to pass such a tax hike failed.
Donlon Road work is done . Public officials and residents celebrate the completion of the Donlon Road realignment project in Somis on Monday. The job involved moving Donlon Road 200 feet to the west to align with the existing traffic signal on Highway 118 at Somis Road/ Highway 34. The roadwork is intended to improve the traffic flow along the busy highways.
Building I-405 Project Awareness One Community Meeting at a Time. All along the 16-mile I-405 Project corridor from Los Alamitos to Costa Mesa, OCTA’s public outreach team is building awareness one community meeting at a time. Scheduled for completion in 2022, the project includes adding one regular lane in each direction from Euclid Street to I-605 and making improvements to freeway entrances, exits and bridges. It will also construct the 405 Express Lanes, two lanes in each direction from SR-73 to I-605. The new express lanes – incorporating the existing carpool lanes and connectors that opened in 2014 – will give solo drivers the choice to speed up their commute for a toll, while carpoolers can ride free or at a discount.
Improved 91 Freeway Provides Smoother Travel. A recently opened six-mile stretch of westbound State Route 91 (SR-91) offers drivers greater efficiency and safety thanks to new general-purpose and auxiliary lanes and widened bridges and ramps. Located between State Route 57 (SR-57) and Interstate 5 (I-5), the improved area includes four miles of new general-purpose lanes in the westbound direction and auxiliary lanes that allow traffic to more smoothly enter and exit the freeway. The improvements were led by OCTA and Caltrans.
What’s Happening on the I-5 South County Improvements Project?. Work is continuing on the new I-5 bridge over Avenida Pico, part of the $230 million I-5 South County Improvements Project that extends the carpool lanes from San Juan Capistrano to San Clemente. Pile driving for the Avenida Pico bridge foundation on the west side of the interchange is done, and crews are building the bridge abutments and pilasters, which will support the bridge deck. Work also is beginning on large retaining walls adjacent to the southbound Pico off-ramp and on-ramp.
Caltrans Partners with Waze Connected Citizens Program . Caltrans today announced a new, free data-sharing partnership with Waze (http://www.waze.com), the navigation app powered by drivers, in which each will share data to provide the public with better traffic and road information. “Combining the real-time anonymous data from Waze, sourced from drivers themselves, with Caltrans’ vast network of traffic management systems is a win-win for California drivers,” said Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty.
A Few Bad Bills . The California legislature is back from spring recess and the process of hearing and arguing about bills is beginning in earnest. In the next few days, Streetsblog California will talk about some exciting bills coming up that may need your support. But first, we’ll take a quick look at a few bills that are not so good. For the most part, the transportation bills listed here take the wrong approach.
MSN 101 Petaluma Blvd South Interchange and Petaluma Bridge Project Interstate 116 Interchange Project. The Petaluma Blvd South Interchange project will construct a new interchange at Petaluma Blvd South, frontage roads and replace the Petaluma River bridge. The existing Petaluma River bridge is an 866 feet long, twin reinforced concrete box girder (with pre-cast I girder span over the river) bridge that was built in 1955. The existing bridge has two lanes of traffic in each direction and no shoulders The new bridge will be 907 feet long with three lanes of traffic in each direction and standard shoulders. This will be one of the longest precast, post-tensioned spliced concrete girder bridges in the U.S. Constructing the new bridge over the Petaluma River, which is a navigation channel, will be very challenging. The bridge will be constructed in three stages and require erection of 99 girders up to 130 feet in length and weighing up to 60 tons each. The project will also replace the existing South Petaluma Blvd On/Off Ramps constructed underneath Highway 101 in the mid 1950’s with a new “diamond” interchange with a decorative gateway structure (overcrossing). Construction is anticipated to be complete by the end of in 2016.
504-foot truss span on old Bay Bridge to be removed this weekend. Demolition crews will begin removing the second of five truss spans on the old eastern portion of the Bay Bridge this weekend, Caltrans officials said Wednesday. The first 504-foot truss span was lowered onto barges in February and hauled to the Port of Oakland for deconstruction. The next span will be lowered on Saturday and get transported to the port on Sunday, providing there isn’t heavy rain or strong wind.
Next 101 project begins south of Petaluma . It’s a famous, near-hairpin turn in Sonoma County, a white knuckle, hard-braking maneuver that takes commitment, focus and maybe a dash of bravery. No, it’s not Sonoma Raceway. It’s the Gas Club turnoff, one of several hair-raising driveways off Highway 101 south of Petaluma set to close for good in the near future. The driveway where Kastania Road dumps directly onto Highway 101 is set to shut down permanently as part of Caltrans’s latest round of freeway improvements, a $91.8 million project that will also improve flood protection and sight lines for the roadway as it curves over San Antonio Creek between Sonoma and Marin counties.
Highway 119 construction starts Monday. Construction is going to start Monday on the new truck passing lanes on Highway 119 and that means delays for drivers. Caltrans and Granite Construction Company will conduct one-way traffic control during the construction. Beginning Monday, weekly daytime closures will occur between Elk Hills Road and Tupman Road.
Apparently Faulty Engineering Caused Cave-in of Hwy. 25 Realignment Project. Cave-in of $2.1 million realignment of Highway 25 could keep the new portion of the road closed for two years. The plan was to address safety issues along Airline Highway/Highway 25 (officially part of the State Highway Scenic System), just below the Route 146 entrance into Pinnacles National Park, at a hard left turn that a five-year Highway Patrol study supposedly identified as a site of numerous fatal crashes. When Caltrans began designing a cut across land that was the designated habitat of the California Tiger Salamander, as well as numerous blue oaks, the agency was determined to do the job to protect human lives while doing as little damage to wildlife habitat as possible. It apparently did neither.
Minor Repaving Planned for Highway 65. Have you ever been stuck in traffic on State Route 65 and noticed your ride was a bit bumpy? It’s been a while since these roads have been repaired due to a lack of state funding available to properly maintain existing roads and highways. But in just a few weeks you will see some work being done on SR 65 between I-80 and Lincoln Boulevard. Recently, Caltrans awarded funding for a small portion of State Route 65 to be repaved. The work will take about 3-4 weeks to complete. But let’s be clear. While PCTPA recognizes and appreciates Caltrans’ investment in repaving this portion of SR 65, it does not address the highway’s main problem: traffic congestion. SR 65 is currently experiencing operational problems during peak morning and evening commute times, and average speeds and travel times on these roads will only get worse as growth increases in our region. As more employers come to Placer County, more families will find themselves stuck in traffic if we do not plan ahead.
Caltrans Asks For Public Comments on Proposal for Highway 140 Road Repair in the Merced River Canyon. The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) proposes to repair a failed slope beneath an 84-inch reinforced concrete pipe culvert adjacent to the eastbound lane of State Route 140 at post mile 32.2 in Mariposa County. Construction of a rockfilled gabion basket wall with stone base support/buttress is the proposed repair method to repair the failed slope and stop erosion from the culvert at this site. The purpose of the project, also known as the SR-140 Slope Repair Project, is to prevent further erosion of the slope and protect the highway and the associated culvert. Caltrans is the lead agency for the preparation of the environmental document for the project pursuant to both the California Environmental Quality Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.
Atascadero place names have changed over time. Everything we read about Atascadero’s history is “Colony” this and “Colony” that. We celebrate Colony Days and at the end of this month the Atascadero Historical Society will hold its annual Colony Home Tour. Yet the city’s founder, E.G. Lewis, hated the term “Colony.” He even went to court to get the name changed to “Estates.” He said the name “Colony” didn’t explain exactly what he was trying to do here. But the name never stuck. Traffic Way was originally known as La Plaza Boulevard. In a number of news stories you’ll see the name written as “Traffic Way/La Plaza Boulevard” or “La Plaza Boulevard/Traffic Way.” The large Mercantile Building that opened in March 1917 was known as La Plaza after a local contest was held to come up with a name for what was Atascadero’s single
OCTA starts talks about how to improve PCH. Coastal Orange County cities several years ago requested that the county transportation authority conduct a study on the iconic but aging Pacific Coast Highway, and on Tuesday the agency shared the issues the corridor faces. Board members of the Orange County Transportation Authority, which partnered with Caltrans to study 37 miles of the highway from Seal Beach to San Clemente, directed staff to bring the findings to the six coastal city councils.
Freeway cap parks can be L.A.’s High Line. On a perch above 10 lanes of freeway traffic, dogs chase Frisbees, kids frolic, boot-campers sweat and barbecues smoke. Glendale recently unveiled its plan for a freeway cap park called Space 134 with just such idyllic imagery. Glendale’s proposal may strike some as an urban pipe dream, completely infeasible and unaffordable. No doubt, such projects demand substantial fundraising efforts, take a long time to build and require intensive coordination by multiple agencies. But Southern California cities must reach in this direction. If we don’t proactively create new open spaces as the L.A. metro area becomes more dense, livability here will take a turn for the worse.
Legal fight over the 405 expansion in Orange County moves to San Diego. The legal fight over widening a stretch of the 405 Freeway in Orange County is headed south to San Diego. Attorneys for the city of Long Beach and the California Department of Transportation have agreed to litigate the case in a neutral county, said Caltrans spokesman David Richardson. Long Beach sued the state last summer over plans to add one toll lane and one free lane to the 405 between State Route 73 in Costa Mesa and the 605 Freeway near the Los Angeles County line. The proposal also calls for converting the existing carpool lane into a toll lane.
Gaviota Curves Re-Alignment Project. A project to re-align the northbound lanes and straighten a curve along US Highway 101 from north of Mariposa Reina to south of the Gaviota State Roadside Rest Area will begin on Monday, April 18, Caltrans officials have announced. For the duration of this project, motorists going northbound on US Highway 101 will be unable to turn left onto Gaviota Beach Road to access Gaviota State Park and the Hollister Ranch or turn left onto northbound US Highway 101 from Gaviota Beach Road. Northbound motorists may detour at the State Route 1 Interchange north of the tunnel before returning southbound
Why Isn’t There a Freeway to Beverly Hills?. It’s the missing link of L.A.’s freeway network: the 2, a direct connection between the Westside’s 405 and Hollywood’s 101. Known to planners as the Beverly Hills Freeway, this 9.3-mile cross-town superhighway would have relieved pressure on the 10 and provided local freeway access to West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and Century City. It also would have torn through some of L.A.’s wealthiest residential districts — a fact that ultimately relegated plans for the freeway to the trash bin.
Fence to protect endangered species part of Highway 119 construction project. Drivers heading along Highway 119 between Taft and Bakersfield will see a long, bright orange fence snaking along the north side of the road. Caltrans says it’s there to protect endangered species during a construction project. They say it will help three specific animals. The project runs from Tupman Road to Elk Hills Road. Drivers are advised of traffic control measures for about six weeks, the entire project will take about 7 months, and the big fence will be up during that entire time.
Construction Work to Resume on Lake Tahoe Highways. The 2016 construction season in the Tahoe Basin will get under way next week with work resuming on a multi-year State Highway 89 project, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) announced today. The $70.1 million water-quality improvement project is building new drainage facilities to collect and treat stormwater runoff, adding curbs and gutters, widening the highway and repaving an eight-mile section of Highway 89 between Tahoma and Tahoe City. Work this season will focus on the remaining four miles of the project between Eagle Rock and Granlibakken Road.
Delays continue, for Caltrans, 101/23 project . Construction on the 101/23 freeway interchange in Thousand Oaks, originally slated to finish this spring, is now expected to end in August. The Caltrans-led expansion of the county’s busiest interchange is in its 26th month. Work was delayed late last year when engineers discovered a soundwall intended for the south side of the 101 near Hampshire Road could not be built as originally designed.
San Francisco’s Plan to Bury a Freeway. When the Golden Gate Bridge opened in 1937, the road leading to it, a hulking viaduct of concrete and steel known as Doyle Drive, split the northern tip of San Francisco in two, cutting right through the Presidio, the U.S. Army base that guarded the mouth of San Francisco Bay. For as long as the Presidio remained a base, the land’s division into two pieces wasn’t a huge problem.
Highway 140 Slope Repair Project. Caltrans is proposing to repair a failed slope beneath an 84-inch reinforced concrete pipe culvert adjacent to the eastbound lane of State Route 140 at post mile 32.2 in Mariposa County. The repair method to stop the erosion at this site is a Gabion basket buttress/wall. Members of the project development team will be available to discuss the project and show illustrations of a Gabion basket buttress/wall, as well as a map of the proposed project location on the evening of April 21st at the Midpines Community Center from 6-7:30 PM.
Caltrans News Flash #75 – What Happens to Bay Bridge Steel? . In this Caltrans News Flash, Bay Bridge spokesperson Leah Robinson-Leach explores the ways the Old Bay Bridge will live on through art and recycling as successful demolition continues. She speaks with Leslie Pritchett of the Bay Bridge Steel Art Program and Robert Ikenberry of CEC/Silverado JV about recycling of the massive amounts of steel. (YouTube Video)
Congestion cash crunch: Transportation projects facing program cuts. As the state struggles to compensate for its transportation pocketbook falling nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars short, those who drive along San Mateo County’s increasingly congested highways may also feel the sting for years to come. In making up for a statewide shortfall due to a crisis-level drop in gas tax revenue, San Mateo County may not receive any assistance from the California Transportation Commission, or CTC, in the coming fiscal year. That means delayed improvements including the revamp of the State Route 92 and El Camino Real interchange, planning for the possible installation of HOV or carpool lanes along Highway 101, and interchange reconstruction at Willow Road.
Caltrans Switch On Electric Freeway Signs To Ease North County Commute. The California Department of Transportation on Thursday switched on electronic freeway signs intended to make the North County Inland commute a bit easier. The signs are posted along a 20-mile stretch of Interstate 15 between Route 78 in Escondido to just north of Route 52 in San Diego.
Planned Highway 29 flyway might give way to roundabouts . The proposed Soscol Junction flyover at Highway 29 and Highway 221 southeast of the grape crusher statue might become the proposed Soscol Junction roundabouts instead. It’s only an idea. A $40 million flyover joining southbound Highway 221 to southbound Highway 29 remains the preferred option to unsnarl the rush-hour backups caused by traffic signal red lights at this key intersection.
City stakeholders working on strategy to revive Route 66 corridor. Sam Patel looks out the Economy Inn office window toward Jenny’s Grill. His wife, Parul, sits on a counter behind the front desk. It’s another slow Wednesday afternoon at the 67-room motel on East Main Street. Like many U.S. cities, the 2008 Great Recession hit Main Street Barstow hard. Today, the Route 66 corridor is littered with empty buildings. Only a few businesses in the downtown area are thriving. Small mom-and-pop retailers and motels are struggling. And a constant homeless population lingers along Main Street, frustrating business owners and residents. City officials and residents yearn for a solution.
Bridge collapse study praised; Caltrans still silent on findings. A university study of an Interstate 10 bridge collapse that shut down commerce has won a “best paper” award from an international engineering conference, lending credence to the claim that the bridge was felled by poor design, not an unstoppable flood. The study by engineers at UC Berkeley argues that the Tex Wash Bridge could have survived last summer’s flood if the structure had not compressed and twisted the flow of the water, magnifying the pressure against the bridge foundation. The study was the basis for a special Desert Sun project – Doomed to Fail: The fatal flaws of the Tex Wash Bridge – published in January.
Petaluma to recoup $5M from state. Petaluma is set to receive $5.7 million from the state, money that had been in limbo when California dissolved a key local funding mechanism in 2011. The money was once pegged for infrastructure projects including the Old Redwood Highway interchange and the Rainier crosstown connector. Petaluma issued bonds to fund those projects, but the state, during a budget crisis, dissolved local redevelopment agencies, leaving the city unable to use those funds.
How the 5 Freeway Made Orange County Suburban. If Orange County had a skeleton, the 5 freeway would be its spine. Paralleling the coast, the 44-mile superhighway bisects the county lengthwise and links it with Los Angeles to the north and San Diego to the south. Subsidiary freeways – the 91, the 22, the 55 – radiate outward toward the county’s coastal and inland communities. Shopping centers, theme parks, sports venues huddle around its off-ramps. And thanks to its skewed, northwest-southwest orientation, the freeway intersects many of the county’s arterial roads, which tend to follow the cardinal points of the compass. No other piece of infrastructure so thoroughly binds together the spatial structure of Orange County.
Golden Gate Bridge officials announce second delay for suicide barrier project. Work on a suicide barrier for the Golden Gate Bridge will be delayed yet again, span officials announced Friday. In February, bridge officials reported there would be a two-month delay, in part because the original steel selected for the project could not be manufactured in large enough quantities in the United States. Rather than have it made overseas, a different type of steel will have to be used for the project. Because of the steel, other revisions and the volume of questions, the bid opening date had been moved from March 8 to May 3. But potential bidders continue to have multiple questions on the project that can’t be easily answered. Now the bid opening has been pushed to July 12.
The Hwy 4 Wagon Trail Project Gets A ‘Giddyup’. Despite a funding shortfall that might have forced its forward progress to a halt, plans seem back on track for the Mother Lode’s Highway 4 Wagon Trail project. As previously reported here, after hearing that the California Transportation Commission (CTC) planned to red-line $754 million worth of potential highway improvements across the state, the Calaveras Council of Governments (CCOG) helped organize a local delegation.
San Diego officials join the move for a study on suicide-prevention barriers on Coronado Bridge. Since the San Diego-Coronado Bridge opened in 1969, the landmark two-mile span has been the site of more than 360 suicides. And the numbers have surged over the last four years. Now, San Diego officials are moving forward with a study to determine whether suicide barriers or nets could be installed to catch jumpers on their way down. The study would determine whether the state Department of Transportation could install nets similar to those that San Francisco plans to add to the Golden Gate Bridge to prevent suicides.
Candidates running for Antonovich’s seat spar over 710 Freeway extension. Six candidates running for the seat being vacated by longtime Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich sparred mildly over a controversial proposed extension of the 710 Freeway at a debate in Pasadena. The forum, hosted by the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters, was the first televised debate of the campaign and primarily focused on environmental issues.
Reconsidering the 710 Gap Closure. I was walking in the halls of the Engineering and Technology building on Wednesday a former professor of mine who was lecturing a class stopped me. Professor Michael McLendon of the Political Science department had a bone to pick with me about an article I had written outlining the reasons why the 710 Freeway Gap should be closed by way of a tunnel. For the few seconds we had to discuss, McLendon gave me a strong argument why a tunnel would be a bad solution to the problem of traffic congestion. He mentioned how the current cost projection of 5.5 billion dollars for the project is unreliable and will undoubtedly increase as compared with similar projects across the country. Professor McLendon also made a point that not enough traffic would be diverted away from existing routes because of the high cost of the toll the tunnel will charge.
Freeway views are hot: Homeowners cozy up to urban eyesores. Robert Leviton’s loudest neighbor is a 12-lane freeway. The busy stretch of highway that runs alongside his townhouse complex is visible from his north-facing windows. The drone of passing motorists is audible throughout. He can even hear a muffled version of it when his windows are shut. “I was a little bit worried about how close it is to the freeway, but it really doesn’t bother me,” said Leviton. He paid $666,000 for his townhouse, more than triple the U.S. median home sales price. But it allows him to live in a new home within biking distance of his work and it was cheaper than other homes he considered.
State Senator Proposes Bill To Allow Advertising On Caltrans Signs. A state Senator is pushing to bring much-needed funding for California roads through a public-private partnership that is set to not cost taxpayers a dime. Senator Bob Huff, who represents the 29th Senate District covering portions of Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino Counties says, “I’m looking for any pot of money that’s not raising taxes on people to help fix our roads.”
Transportation board studying toll options for 405 express lanes, from $2 to $9. Initial findings of a traffic and revenue study for express lanes on Interstate 405 – which near the Los Angeles County line is the nation’s most heavily traveled freeway – have been released and Orange County transportation officials will soon determine a toll structure. To address heavy congestion on the corridor and an expected 35 percent growth in traffic by 2040, Orange County Transportation Authority board directors have targeted ways to provide express lanes customers with a predictable commute.
Caltrans Adding More Carpool Lanes on I-10. Caltrans officials broke ground Friday on a construction project that will add 5.2 miles of carpool lanes in each direction of the San Bernardino (10) Freeway between West Covina and Pomona. The $195 million project is the last of three that will create 40 miles of continuous carpool lanes between downtown Los Angeles and San Bernardino County.
What good is San Gabriel Mountains National Monument if you can’t get there?. A comedian, might have been Jerry Seinfeld, made a humorous observation back in the ‘90s about a Delta Airlines tagline: “Delta Gets You There,” sung by a woman’s soothing voice. Seinfeld would say: “That is kind of a low bar, don’t you think? I would hope they get me there!” Funny guy, but as they say, there’s always a grain of truth to every joke. Getting there — there being the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument — has been a struggle ever since convicts built San Gabriel Canyon Road, also known as Highway 39, from Azusa through San Gabriel Canyon. But let’s not go back that far.