No, you shouldn’t be spooked by this . But it has been fire season, and there have been brush fires all over the state, impacting the highways and roads. I ran into this last Monday, as I drove past the Getty fire. But it has affected numerous routes, from the 128 and 101 up North, to the 118, 23, 60, and 57 here in the south. So stay safe if you’re on the roads. Here are your headlines from October. Ready, set, discuss.
P.S.: I have started work on the highway page updates. I’m going through the August headlines now, so it will be a bit.
- Andew Maloney Memorial Highway. Caltrans District 10 Director Dan McElhinney, Assemblymember Adam Gray, and CalFire 71 join the Maloney family during a special ceremony and unveiling of new signs for the SR-165 Andrew Maloney Memorial Highway in Los Banos.
- Transportation chiefs brief Marin group on Highway 37 plans. Bay Area transportation officials gathered in Marin this week to update efforts to ensure that Highway 37 doesn’t flood again this winter — and in the future. “I think we all feel the fire under our feet,” said state Sen. Mike McGuire, who organized the Thursday town hall meeting in Novato. “Tonight, we actually have some good news to deliver.”
- Mother Lodes for the Roads: $137 Metro Millions for Pasadena. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority (Metro) board approved Sept. 26, funding for $136,850,000-worth of traffic improvements in Pasadena. The appropriation was part of an overall $297 million appropriated for San Gabriel Valley-area transportation initiatives. The funds were tied up in the 710 freeway extension project. Its demise resulted in their reallocation to mobility improvement projects aimed at resolving the same traffic problems the original project was proposed to fix. The process of finding new uses for what were Measure R funds started back in May 2017 with a Metro Board motion. Planning, study and environmental review were all part of the road to paving for the roads.
- Caltrans Contemplates Overhaul of Pasadena’s Freeway, the SR-110 Arroyo Seco Parkway. Caltrans will lay out changes it is considering to make to the SR-110 Arroyo Seco Parkway at a scoping meeting today. “We’re inviting the public to come in and listen to the various alternatives that we have, proposed to increase motorist safety along the Arroyo Seco Parkway,” said Eric Menjivar, public information officer, Caltrans District 7. The meeting will explore five alternatives, one of which is to do nothing. The second alternative would make lane 3 a permanent shoulder, “to be used as part-time travel during peak periods when volumes are high,” said Caltrans. “Dynamic message signs” (DMS) would convey the lane/shoulder’s changed status.
- 5 Freeway’s Empire Avenue Interchange Opens In Burbank. The Monday morning commute on the 5 Freeway through Burbank took one step forward and three steps back. The newly-constructed Empire Avenue interchange opened early Monday morning, which is good news for commuters who have been suffering through years of road work on the 5 Freeway.
- SANDAG Shifts Funds To Fast Track Transit, Highway Projects. Board members of the San Diego Association of Governments on Friday approved funding to kick start two freeway widenings that agency leaders warn could violate state climate laws. Staffers at the San Diego Association of Governments had proposed fast-tracking the planning, design and environmental clearance of more than two dozen projects, including a number of “complete corridor” studies on how to improve road, transit and bike mobility along a given highway corridor. The goal is to get more projects closer to being ready for construction so they can compete for state and federal grant dollars.