The following is the change log for the November-December 2021 updates to the California Highways pages:
2021 is done. You had such promise, 2021. Why did you have to piss it away by falling in with the low-life loser crowd? Luckily, there were a growing number that put the public good over blatant self-interest. Not far enough, though.
For me and my family, the end of 2021 has been hard. My wife fell the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and broke her knee and the surrounding bones. She was in acute care for a week, then in-patient rehab for two more weeks (meaning three weeks of travel back and forth between Northridge and Burbank), and now is getting in-home rehab — with no weight bearing until the end of February. This has added caregiving to the load—I don’t mind doing it, but it does add to the work and stress.
But the hospital was there when we needed it, because the people in the area headed the pleadings of the scientists and got vaccinated. This meant that there was acute care and rehab space. Many throughout this country are no so lucky. Hospitals are overloaded, and the new Ο (Omicron) variant doesn’t help with its faster spread. This shouldn’t be a partisan issue: The nation came together for the sake of the common good and to fight a common enemy in the first half of the 20th century. We saw our “freedoms” temporarily limited during WWI and WWII through rationing and other controls, and cheerfully did it to bring the nation out of a crisis. But that attitude of America coming together to fight a common foe has been lost today. Whether it is poor leadership or leaders taking advantage of a crisis for their political power, what should be a common fight against a public health enemy has become partisan. Move beyond that partisanship. Just like the nation stepped up for their Polio and Smallpox vaccines to defeat those public health scourges, step up and get your COVID vaccines and boosters unless there are legitimate medical reasons not to do so. Together we can fight this, so we can get back out on the roads. If there are any questions I can answer to ally your vaccine hesitancy, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Those reading this on ꜲRoads will miss my usual pleadings related to Mr. Spike Protein and his antics over the last two years, because some feel that public health is a partisan issue. Those who want to see my pleadings can go over to the full Changelog on the site; those who want to stick their heads in the sand can go to (a city in Michigan). All I’ll say is that you know what you can do to help make 2022 better, and help bring the nation (and the world) out of this crisis, so we can get back on the roads and stumble headfirst into the next one.
But let’s turn our attention to something more pleasant: the roads of the great state of California. From the rural areas in the far northern environs of the state to border commerce in the south, from the deserts of Nevada and Arizona to the Pacific; from the great Sierra mountains to the depths of Death Valley; from the urban areas to rural farmland—California has a vast road network to maintain and grow. It is a network that is vital to the success of the state: its commerce, its people, its growth. It is the mission of the California Highways website to document that network: its history, its peculiarities, and the significant changes that are coming down the road. It is a journey we go on together… once you show proof of vaccination and your boosters, and you wear your mask. After all, I have a sick wife at home, and what you do with respect to communicable diseases impacts not just you, but the broader community.
So here are your updates covering the months of November and December:
Updates were made to the following highways, based on my reading of the (virtual) papers in November and December 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 Concrete Bob(2) , Tom Fearer(3), mrsman(4): Route 1(ℱ), Route 3(ℱ), I-5(ℱ), US 6(3), I-8(ℱ), Pre-1961 Route 10(3), Route 11(ℱ,3), I-15(ℱ), Route 25(ℱ), Route 37(ℱ), Route 42(3), Route 43(ℱ), Route 46(ℱ), Route 70(ℱ), Route 84(ℱ), Route 96(ℱ), Route 99(ℱ,3), US 101(ℱ,3), Route 125(ℱ), Route 129(ℱ), Capitol Southeast Connector/Route 148(2), Route 152(ℱ), Route 156(ℱ), Route 174(ℱ), Route 182(3), US 199(3), Route 247(ℱ), Route 260(4), Route 263(ℱ), Route 266(3), Route 299(3), US 395(ℱ), US 399(3), I-580(ℱ), I-880(4), Route 905(ℱ,3).
(Source: private email, Highway headline posts through December 2021 as indicated, AARoads through 12/31/2021)
Reviewed the Pending Legislation page, based on the California Legislature site. 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. A new fiscal year starts October 1, but the legislature does not reconvene until January 2022. As such, there were no new bills or resolutions from either chamber of the state legislature.
I checked California Transportation Commission page for the results of the December 2021 meeting 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:
