Highway headlines in the time of COVID-19 continues, with seemingly fewer news items. How much of that is due to COVID, and how much just due to changes in the natures of highway funding and what makes news is anyone’s guess. But before we jump into the headlines, a little bit of other California Highways news. The site refresh is proceeding apace, now that I’ve figured out how I want the menus to look. I hope to have it up sometime in July, but here are some of the highlights of what you’ll be seeing:
- Reduced use of tables for formatting and page layout, meaning things should flow better for mobile devices. I haven’t gone to a full responsive design framework … yet.
- Individual files for each state and county route.
- Automatic redirects, so if you refer to the old 8-routes-per-file notation, you still get to the right place (in other words: you don’t need to change your code)
- Menus that will make it easier to jump within a given highway page to a segment, section or structuring section / subsection
Now, back to the headlines. Here are your headlines about California Highways in June, and as always… ready, set, discuss.
[💰 Paywalls and 🚫 other annoying restrictions: LAT/LA Times; SJMN/Mercury News; OCR/Orange County Register; VSG/Visalia Sun Gazette; RDI/Ridgecrest Daily Independent; PE/Press Enterprise; TDT/Tahoe Daily Tribune; SFC/San Francisco Chronicle; MODBEE/Modesto Bee; SACBEE/Sacramento Bee; NVR/Napa Valley Register; DB/Daily Breeze]
- Rte 163/11 Separation. Intersection of the 110 and W Ave 26.
- Caltrans Resurfacing Portions of State Rte. 166. A resurfacing of State Route 166 from Obispo Street in Guadalupe to Blosser Road in Santa Maria will begin on Monday, June 8.
- Clay Street still eyed for widening, moving bridge. It’s been 18 months or so since the Clay Street Bridge in Placerville has been in the news, but those months have not been without movement toward a city project that aims to widen the roadway and possibly move what some say is an historical asset. It is precisely because the city wants to be certain all historical and cultural matters are explored and sensitively dealt with during the Clay Street Realignment and Replacement Project that the delay occurred. That, and of course, COVID-19, the City Council was told Tuesday by City Engineer Rebecca Neves.
- Scott Road Interchange Open. Courtesy Post: The Scott Road Interchange is fully open this week for the first time as the project enters the completion stage.
- ‘A giant wheezing kazoo’: Golden Gate Bridge starts to ‘sing’ after design fix. San Francisco’s famous Golden Gate Bridge has started “singing” following recent changes to bicycle-path railings that appear to make music as the wind blows through them, residents have reported. The eerie sound has prompted perplexed, cheeky, and even desperate reactions from locals.
- Granite wins $16m Cosumnes Bridge project. Granite has been awarded the Child Project 4 (CP4) portion of the Cosumnes Bridge Replacement Project by the California Department of Transportation’s (Caltrans) in Sacramento County. The contact is part of a phased delivery of the overall $158 million project. The $16 million project contract is included in Granite’s second quarter 2020 backlog, the company says.
- 🚫/NVR American Canyon starts condemnation proceedings for big road project. American Canyon is flexing its eminent domain muscles as it seeks to acquire several slivers of private property it deems necessary for the Green Island Road project in the industrial area. The City Council on Tuesday voted to initiate eminent domain proceedings against four property owners. That means if the parties can’t negotiate deals, the city can take the land and the courts will decide the sale prices.
- E. I-880 Express Lanes. The I-880 Express Lanes are nearing completion. Your drive on I-880 will change as new striping of the far-left lanes begins the week of June 8th.
