Month: May 2021

May has been an interesting month, as my last post shows. I’ve been spending weekends since March going through these headline posts, including this one as it was being built (✔ indicates posts that were included in the highway page update). May also marked the passage of the two week period after my second vaccine, so if I choose to, I could go maskless (however, I still plan to wear a mask, at least in indoor, recirculated air situations^*). Please, unless you have a real medical reason not to do so or real religious objections, get yourself vaccinated so that we can all breath freely when we’re together and on the road again.

And with that said, as I say every month, “ready, set, discuss”.

Footnotes
^*: So why will I still choose to wear a mask? A number of reasons: Some people are of the belief that the vaccine protects you 100% percent. It doesn’t, although it reduces the odd of getting COVID significantly, and it makes COVID if you get it not life threatening. The vaccine also is much less effective in people with certain underlying health conditions (such as being immune impared, like my wife). Lastly, there is still a small chance even vaccinated folks can be asymptomic carriers. So folks who have been vaxxed wear the mask because the odds are not zero and they want that extra risk reduction (and don’t mind the small inconvenience when inside, in enclosed higher risk shared air spaces). We also don’t know who isn’t vaxxed, and wearing a mask encourages those folks to wear their mask and not be singled out. Lastly, I just learned that if you are vaccinated for COVID, wearing a mask afterward prevents the microchip that is implanted with the vaccine from transmitting or receiving signals. Evidently they designed the microchip to implant in your sinuses, and so making sure the mask covers your mouth and nose attenuates the directional signal just enough…^**
**: JK on that “Lastly”.

Key

[Ħ Historical information | ＄ Paywalls, ＄ really obnoxious paywalls, and ∅ other annoying restrictions: SDUT/San Diego Union Tribune; OCR/Orange County Register; VN/Valley News; PE/Press Enterprise; LBPT/Long Beach Press Telegram; DB/Daily Breeze; LADN/Los Angeles Daily News; LAT/LA Times; DS/Desert Sun; RDI/Ridgecrest Daily Independent; VSG/Visalia Sun Gazette; FB/Fresno Bee; MODBEE/Modesto Bee; MH/Monterey Herald; SONN/Sonoma News; SJMN/Mercury News; SFC/San Francisco Chronicle; SFG/SF Gate; EBT/East Bay Times; SACBEE/Sacramento Bee; SBJ/Sacramento Business Journal; TDT/Tahoe Daily Tribune; MIJ/Marin Independent-Journal; NVR/Napa Valley Register; PD/Press Democrat; AC/Argus Courier; SIT/Sonoma Index Tribune; RBDN/Red Bluff Daily News; AD/Yuba Sutter Colusa County Appeal Democrat; DNT/Del Norte Triplicate; NW/Newsweek; UKT/The Telegraph (UK) ]

Highway Headlines

• ✔ ＄_/NVR  Big Highway 12 project underway to end Jameson Canyon backups for Napa motorists. Here’s a sight for congestion-weary eyes — orange-vested construction workers driving piles, bulldozing dirt, and building bridges where Highway 12 meets Interstate 80. Call them the Jameson Canyon bottleneck-busters. They are building what is supposed to be the solution to eastbound, mile-long evening Highway 12 backups. While the highway through Jameson Canyon is two lanes in each direction, that drops to one eastbound lane just before the freeway.
• ✔ Security Paving Reaches Midway Point of Ventura County Highway Job. Security Paving Company Inc. has completed nearly 50 percent of the California Department of Transportation’s (Caltrans) $91 million State Route 23 (SR 23) Pavement Rehabilitation Project taking place on 8.2 mi. of highway in Ventura County from U.S. 101 to SR 118 in order to extend the lifespan of the busy highway.
• ✔ Visalia Continues Close Cooperation with State on SR 198. Visalia officials have been working closely with state agencies on cleanup projects along State Route (SR) 198, and coordination continues. “We understand that there are citizen concerns regarding Highway 198 in terms of trash and debris and the presence of those camping on the embankment,” shared Mayor Steve Nelsen. “We share concerns about blight and keeping the sides of the roadway clear, and we continue to work with both Caltrans Central Valley District 6 and the California Highway Patrol (CHP) to address the issues and keep both motorists and citizens safe.”
• ✔ Gilman Interchange Project: Interview with Alameda County Transportation Commission Executive Director Tess Lengyel. Beginning in May, Caltrans will begin a major overhaul of a busy traffic interchange in Berkeley on Gilman Ave. at Interstate Highway 80. Tess Lengyel, the Executive Director from Alameda County Transportation Commission said the Gilman Interchange project will pave the way for a more efficient and safer commute. Interview with reporter Gianna Franco.
• ✔ Valley congressman requests $20 million to widen Hwy 41. Congressman David Valadao has requested $20 million from the House Appropriations Committee to have the 6-mile gap of Hwy 41 widened to 4-lanes. This section of the highway is in Fresno County from the Kings County Line north to Elkhorn Ave. That stretch has a long history of fatal crashes due to drivers trying to pass slower-moving cars, and merging into incoming traffic to do so.
• ✔ State Route 132 Dakota Avenue to Gates Road Project (FB). District 10 and our local partners will be hosting a virtual open house for the State Route 132 Dakota Avenue to Gates Road Project. The event begins at 6 pm on Thursday, May 6, 2021. See below for full information, as well as online access & dates for the public comment period.
• ✔ Car Pool Lanes Coming to Park Presidio and GG Park. Motorists traveling through the Richmond District and Golden Gate Park along California State Route 1 can expect some road-sharing changes soon. North- and south-bound traffic on Park Presidio Boulevard, Park Presidio Bypass and Crossover Drive from Lake Street to Lincoln Way in the Sunset District will see the outside lanes (right-hand lanes) reserved for cars with two or more occupants and public transportation vehicles because of a new but temporary program.

Read More …

What a long, strange year it has been. In March 2020, I saw my last live theatre for over a year: Passion at Boston Court. I had just returned from a trip to Madison WI to visit my daughter. We were just starting to worry about the Novel Coronavirus, with no idea of the long haul in front of us. Working from home had just begun. We were at the start of the 2020 election year, long before we had any inkling that the losing candidate would attempt an insurrection to overturn the election result and present Congress from doing their congressional duty. A long, long, strange year.

On the highway page front: I was continuing work on the major site redesign and rework, which was coming up in May. That behind me, updates preceded apace. I think the new site is fast. This year, due to some problems, I got rid of one of the plugins on the WordPress side of the site, and suddenly that became faster and more reliable. I may be getting back into the blogging side of the equation.

As for 2021: Let’s hope for a return to the new normal. We have a vaccine, and hopefully we’ll all be vaccinated by the summer—and so we might start to be able to do events and roadtrips again. We’ll likely still want to wear masks, as there will be those who refuse the vaccines, or for whom the vaccine is not 100% preventative. We have a new President, who is behaving a lot more…presidential. I don’t have major site changes planned. The hope for 2021 is: a new normal, and an uneventful new normal.  כן יהי רצון Ken Yehi Ratzon—Let It Be So.

I do want to share one thing I saw going through the CTC Minutes that didn’t make it into these pages. The following was amended into the SHOPP at the May meeting, and is $730,000 of your tax dollars at work:

May 2021 CTC Agenda Item 2.1a.(1a): 05-Mon-1 PM 10.5. Route 1 Near Gorda, at the Willow Springs Maintenance Station at 72115 Cabrillo Highway (Route 1). Repair failed electrical system. In January 2021, a microwave oven caught fire while not in use at the maintenance station employee housing facility.  A follow-up investigation of this incident, an ongoing low-voltage issue, and a history of damaged electrical appliances has identified numerous safety related issues due to undersized wiring, corrosion of components, long undersized wire runs, and all power runs connected to a ineffective single main breaker. This project will remove existing electrical components, install new pull boxes, conduit, wiring, and service panels.

On to the updates.

Updates were made to the following highways, based on my reading of the papers from January through May 2021 (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 Ꜳ GaryA⁽²⁾, Michael Ballard⁽³⁾, Ꜳ Bing101⁽⁴⁾, Shirleigh Brannon⁽⁵⁾, Ꜳ DT Composer⁽⁶⁾, Tom Fearer⁽⁷⁾, Ꜳ HeyNow415⁽⁸⁾, Cameron Kaiser⁽⁹⁾, Rick Kelly⁽¹⁰⁾, Ꜳ Kniwt⁽¹¹⁾, Scott Parker⁽¹²⁾,  Francesca Smith⁽¹³⁾, Chris Sampang⁽¹⁴⁾, and Joel Windmiller⁽¹⁵⁾: Route 1^(ℱ,7,12), Route 4⁽⁷⁾, I-5^(ℱ), I-8^(ℱ), Route 9^(ℱ), I-10^(ℱ), Route 12^(ℱ), Route 13⁽⁷⁾, I-15^(ℱ,7,12), Route 16⁽⁷⁾, Route 20⁽⁷⁾, Route 24^(7,11), Route 25^(ℱ), Route 29^(ℱ), Route 37^(ℱ), I-40⁽⁷⁾, US 40^(ℱ,8), Route 41^(ℱ), Route 42^(ℱ),  Route 46^(ℱ), Route 47^(ℱ), US 48⁽¹⁰⁾, Route 49^(ℱ), US 50^(ℱ,7,15), Route 55^(ℱ), Route 57^(ℱ), Route 62^(ℱ), Route 67^(ℱ),  Route 70^(ℱ),  Route 74^(ℱ), Route 75^(ℱ), Route 78^(ℱ), Route 79^(ℱ), I-80^(ℱ), Route 84^(ℱ), Route 86^(ℱ), Route 90^(ℱ), US 91/ Route 91^(ℱ,7,12), Route 92^(ℱ), Route 99/US 99^(ℱ,3,7,15), US 101^{(ℱ,2,7,12,6)}, I-105^(ℱ,13), Route 108^(ℱ), Route 111^(ℱ), Route 118^(ℱ), Route 120^(ℱ), Route 123⁽⁴⁾, LRN 125⁽⁷⁾, Route 128^(ℱ,7,8), Route 132^(ℱ), Route 134^(ℱ), Route 135^(ℱ), Route 136⁽⁹⁾,  Route 138^(ℱ), Route 140^(ℱ), Route 143^(ℱ), Route 148^(ℱ), Route 152^(7,14), Route 154^(ℱ), LRN 174^(ℱ), Route 174^(ℱ), Route 198⁽⁷⁾, Route 204⁽⁷⁾, I-210^(ℱ), Route 222^(ℱ,7), Route 229⁽⁷⁾, Route 236^(ℱ), Route 241^(ℱ), Route 254^(ℱ), Route 263^(ℱ),  I-280^(ℱ), Route 282^(ℱ), I-305^(ℱ,7), Route 371^(ℱ), I-380^(ℱ), US 399⁽⁷⁾,  I-405^(ℱ), US 466^(7,12), I-505^(ℱ), I-580^(ℱ), I-605^(ℱ), I-680^(ℱ), I-710^(ℱ), I-980^(ℱ), County Sign Route G8⁽⁷⁾ .
(Source: private email, Highway headline posts through May 2021 as indicated, AARoads through 5/28/2021)

For those interested, there is an interview with me in Caltrans News 2021 № 1.

At the request of a long-time friend and contributor to this site⁽⁵⁾, captured the “lost” Caltrans series of pages about the 50th Anniversary of the start of the Interstate system that occurred in 2005/2006. These pages were published on the Caltrans site in 2005, and disappeared during a site rework in 2019 (likely because they were felt to be outdated). But for those of us here at California Highways, we love that history—and so we have preserved them. Please contact Caltrans if you want to use the pictures, and say you saw it on the Wayback Machine (wink).

Added some information on the earliest days of this website to the 1996 and before changes page. Ronald J Hall at Caltrans sent me a correction for the statistics page regarding the highest point on Route 270.

Read More …

Yet another month rolls over, meaning its time for two things: (1) swapping to the other iPod Classic, and (2) a headline post. April was an interesting month. I’ve been slowly working through the headlines (I’m about halfway through March), so maybe I’ll be able to finish the highway page updates before the May headline post. April also saw me completing the Moderna Vaccine regime — and we may very well do a roadtrip today to celebrate and kill off podcasts: Route 118 to Route 23 to Route 126 to Route 150 to Route 33 to Route 166 to Route 99 to I-5 and back to Route 118.

So, first and foremost: <PUBLICSERVICEANNOUNCEMENT>You need a road trip. You can do it safest — for you and for others — if you are vaccinated. GO GET YOUR COVID-19 VACCINE. Anyone over 16 can. It DOES NOT implant a chip. It DOES NOT give you COVID. It’s been in use for four months, on top of all past testing, and is proving extremely safe. But more important: consider the safety vs. the alternative … getting COVID or living in fear of getting COVID. The vaccine will protect you, or at least make any case you contract much less serious. GO GET THE SHOT. </PUBLICSERVICEANNOUNCEMENT>

With that said, here are your headlines for April, together with other things I found of potential interest for the highway pages. Ready, set, discuss, … and get your shot.

Key

[Ħ Historical information | ＄ Paywalls and ∅ other annoying restrictions: SDUT/San Diego Union Tribune; OCR/Orange County Register; VN/Valley News; PE/Press Enterprise; LBPT/Long Beach Press Telegram; DB/Daily Breeze; LADN/Los Angeles Daily News; LAT/LA Times; DS/Desert Sun; RDI/Ridgecrest Daily Independent; VSG/Visalia Sun Gazette; FB/Fresno Bee; MODBEE/Modesto Bee; MH/Monterey Herald; SONN/Sonoma News; SJMN/Mercury News; SFC/San Francisco Chronicle; SFG/SF Gate; EBT/East Bay Times; SACBEE/Sacramento Bee; SBJ/Sacramento Business Journal; TDT/Tahoe Daily Tribune; MIJ/Marin Independent-Journal; NVR/Napa Valley Register; PD/Press Democrat; AC/Argus Courier; RBDN/Red Bluff Daily News; AD/Yuba Sutter Colusa County Appeal Democrat; DNT/Del Norte Triplicate; NW/Newsweek; UKT/The Telegraph (UK) ]

Highway Headlines

• Metro to present proposal to reduce much of Colorado Boulevard in Eagle Rock to one car lane each way. The push is on for a bus rapid transit (BRT) route through Eagle Rock that would reduce Colorado Boulevard to one car lane each way between Eagle Rock Boulevard and Linda Rosa Avenue. The car-lane reduction would create room for dedicated bus lanes and enhanced bike lanes, while preserving most on-street parking.
• Antlers Bridge Replacement on I-5 (Shasta County, California). This $131M bridge was constructed on a new parallel alignment just east of the existing bridge, which spans the Sacramento River arm of Shasta Lake, California’s third largest lake and largest reservoir. The new bridges are twin cast-in-place segmental box girder superstructures consisting of 5 spans, 1,942’ long and 104’ wide connected with diaphragms at the piers as well as a full length closure pour, connecting the wings. The superstructure depth varies from 29’-6” deep to 12’ deep. The structure, designed for a 100-year life, consists of 13 million pounds of steel and more than 36,000 cubic yards of concrete.
• Have a say in the future of Highway 37. Have thoughts on the future of Highway 37 in Vallejo? Share your views with Caltrans, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and transportation agencies for Marin, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties, who are seeking input. All will participate in an upcoming online public Townhall meeting hosted by senators Mike McGuire, D-North Coast and Bill Dodd, D-Solano. Agency officials are expected to discuss three coordinated planning efforts to develop solutions for improving Highway 37.
• ＄_/DS State Route 62 road construction project set to begin next week. The initial stages of a road construction project set for more than 20 miles of Highway 62 in Riverside and San Bernardino counties will begin next week, and Caltrans urged motorists to brace for future delays. The $48 million project will see a new layer of pavement placed on two major segments of Highway 62. The first is from Indian Canyon Drive near Desert Hot Springs to roughly Yucca Mesa Road in Yucca Valley. The work will pick up again in Twentynine Palms, from Bermuda Avenue to near Utah Trail.
• Caltrans awards millions for local roadway safety projects. Caltrans has awarded over $227 million to fund safety projects designed to reduce traffic deaths and serious injuries on city and county roads. Funding is provided through the federal Highway Safety Improvement Program. “Safety is always our number one priority,” said Caltrans Director Toks Omishakin. “These projects will enhance systemwide safety features, including expanded access to protected walkways and bikeways, and will move us closer to our goal of reducing serious injuries and fatalities on California roadways.” San Benito County is included in the funding: …
• Measure A paid for $14.6M in North County projects in 2019-20. Almost $14.6 million of Measure A funds were spent on North County transportation projects in the 2019-20 fiscal year, according to the annual report recently released by the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments. The expenditures bring the total amount of Measure A funds spent in the North County since the transportation sales tax was approved in 2008 to more than $157 million, according to the report.
• California invests $491 million for transportation improvements. The California Transportation Commission (CTC) in late March allocated $491 million to address transportation needs throughout the state. This investment, which includes $273 million generated from Senate Bill 1 (SB1), known as the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017, will repair highways and bridges and improve California’s growing network of mass transit, bicycle and pedestrian routes. … The following are a few projects aimed at improving or repairing some of the state’s roads and bridges. District 3 — Marysville …

Read More …