Month: August 2022

This update covers the remainder of May that wasn’t covered in the April update, plus June and July. This took a bit longer, because I’ve also been working on getting our new podcast, California Highways: Route by Route up and running. You can visit the podcast’s forever home at https://www.caroutebyroute.org/ , or the show’s page on anchor.fm. A full sample episode and the first full episode (covering the history of California Highways through 1920) are already up. The next episode will be up shortly after these updates. Subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting app or by using the RSS feed. Just search for “California Highways” and look for our logo. The podcast is a joint effort between me and Tom Fearer of Gribblenation. Our plan is to include interviews in each episode. Episode 1.01 includes an interview with Adam Prince on the Good Roads movement, and episode 1.02 will feature Joel Windmiller of the Lincoln Highway Association on the initial set of US highways in California. We’re looking for interviews for the remaining set of Season 1 episodes, as indicated. If you’ve got a lead on a speaker, please let me know.

• 1.03: Building a State Highway System: The 1930s: An expert on the role of the Auto Club in signing highways
• 1.04: Building a State Highway System: Expanding the System: Someone to talk on the 1956 Interstate Highway Bill
• 1.05: Building a State Highway System: The Great Renumbering and New Freeways: Someone to talk on the construction boom of the 1960s and/or the impact of the great renumbering.
• 1.06: Building a State Highway System: CEPA and Reality: Someone to talk on the impact of the California EPA act on highway construction
• 1.07: Highway Numbering: State Highways: Someone to talk on how the state numbers state highways — in particular, anything official on numbering patterns, or the rules for signing things.
• 1.08: Highway Numbering: US Highways: Here I’d like someone to talk on the role of AASHTO on numbering US highways
• 1.09: Highway Numbering: Interstates: This is Interstate numbering, so again an expert on Interstates — either numbering, the federal aid highway acts, or the chargeable/non-chargeable distinction
• 1.10: Highway Numbering: County Routes: This is numbering of county highways, so anyone from a county public works department on the signed route system
• 1.11: The Naming of Highways: A state legislator on highway naming resolutions
• 1.12: The Organizations of State Highways: Someone from the California Transportation Commission on the role of the commission.

Updates were made to the following highways, based on my reading of the (virtual) papers in May, June, and July 2022 (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 Gary Ansok⁽²⁾, Concrete Bob⁽³⁾, Gretl Davis⁽⁴⁾, Paul DeRocco (pderocco)⁽⁵⁾, Tom Fearer⁽⁶⁾, Andy Field⁽⁷⁾, Richard Lyon⁽⁸⁾, Glen Norman⁽⁹⁾, Plutonic Panda⁽¹⁰⁾, Chris Sampang⁽¹¹⁾: Route 1^(ℱ), Route 4^(ℱ), I-5^(ℱ), I-10^(ℱ), Route 11^(ℱ), Route 12^(ℱ), Route 17^(ℱ), Route 25^(ℱ), Route 29^(ℱ), Route 33⁽⁶⁾, Route 35^(ℱ), Route 37^(ℱ), Route 41^(ℱ), Route 55^(ℱ), Route 58⁽⁷⁾, Route 59^(ℱ), US 66⁽⁶⁾, Route 71⁽¹¹⁾, LRN 77^(ℱ), LRN 78^(ℱ), I-80^(ℱ,4), US 80⁽⁶⁾, Route 83⁽⁶⁾, Route 90⁽⁶⁾, Route 98^(ℱ), Route 99^(ℱ,6), US 101^(ℱ,6), Route 120^(ℱ), Route 125^(ℱ), Route 140^(ℱ), Route 148⁽³⁾, Route 156^(ℱ), Route 162^(ℱ), Route 190^(ℱ), Route 194⁽⁶⁾,  I-205^(ℱ), Route 206⁽⁶⁾, Route 209⁽⁶⁾, Route 212⁽⁶⁾, Route 221^(ℱ), Route 228⁽⁶⁾, Route 236^(ℱ), Route 262⁽⁹⁾, Route 275^(ℱ), Route 330⁽⁶⁾, US 395^(ℱ,5), Route 480^(ℱ,6),  I-680^(ℱ), I-710^(ℱ,6,10), Route 905^(ℱ), County Sign Route E9⁽⁸⁾, County Sign Route G2⁽²⁾.
(Source: private email, Highway headline posts through the July Headline post, AARoads through July 25, 2022)

Added a link to a crowdsourced map on the El Camino Real Bells. H/T to J. Scott Hayden for the link.

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. The following bills made it out of the process:

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Sorry for the delay in getting the July headlines up. I’ve been trying to get a set up updates to California Highways done, and had to finish working through the California Transportation Commission minutes before I could start on the headlines. I’ve also been trying to get the podcast going — more on that in a minute. So now I can turn my attention to the headlines from July.

But first, the California Highways Route by Route podcast. We have our first regular episode up, but still needs some more listens to catch up with the full sample episode. Anchor shows 51 listens to the sample (0.02), and 39 to the first episode (1.01). Please do your part. Subscribe in your favorite podcatcher, add our RSS feed, or listen through one of the Anchor feeds. The second episode is recorded and awaiting editing, and we’re planning on recording more soon. Subscribe now so you don’t miss a single episode.

We’re also plotting out the year. We need some good interview subjects, or leads for interviews. If you can help us find people to talk to, that would be great. Just let me know (comment here, or email daniel -at caroutebyroute -dot org. Here’s the list for the rest of the first season in terms of what I’m wanting in regard to interviews:

• 1.03: An expert on the role of the Auto Club in signing highways
• 1.04: Someone to talk on the 1956 Interstate Highway Bill
• 1.05: Someone to talk on the construction boom of the 1960s and/or the impact of the great renumbering.
• 1.06: Someone to talk on the impact of the California EPA act on highway construction
• 1.07: Someone to talk on how the state numbers state highways — in particular, anything official on numbering patterns, or the rules for signing things.
• 1.08: Here I’d like someone to talk on the role of AASHTO on numbering US highways
• 1.09: This is Interstate numbering, so again an expert on Interstates — either numbering, the federal aid highway acts, or the chargeable/non-chargeable distinction
• 1.10: This is numbering of county highways, so anyone from a county public works department on the signed route system
• 1.11: A state legislator on highway naming resolutions
• 1.12: Someone from the California Transportation Commission on the role of the commission.

We’re also looking for a better theme song, so if you know of someone willing to write some short pieces for the show that we can use for free, that would be great.

During July, I explored some of the desert highways: Route 62, Route 74, Route 111, Route 86. Where have you been exploring?

But you care about the headlines. So here are the headlines about California’s highways for July. The headline list seems to be getting smaller–I’m finding less articles about significant road work (I’m not that interested in simple resurfacing), and more articles about transit and rail. I think that’s the direction things are going currently: increase the number of people per vehicle on current roads (as opposed to capacity for more vehicles), and increase broader transit options. But here’s what I found:

Key

[Ħ Historical information | ＄ Paywalls, ＄＄ really obnoxious paywalls, and ∅ other annoying restrictions. I’m no longer going to list the paper names, as I’m including them in the headlines now. Note: For ＄ paywalls, sometimes the only way is incognito mode, grabbing the text before the paywall shows, and pasting into an editor. ]

Highway Headlines

• Freeway marker honors late Fil-Am leader Alice Bulos (Inquirer.Net). Elizabeth Bulos Ramilo was driving to work on the morning of June 27 when a road sign grabbed her attention: ALICE PEÑA BULOS MEMORIAL FREEWAY. Ramilo had long known of state and local officials‘ efforts to honor her mother in perpetuity, but she was unaware the sign already had been installed on Skyline Boulevard. The South San Francisco resident said she was elated near tears to see the memorialization fulfilled.
• California allocates more than $3 billion for transportation infrastructure (Orange County Breeze). The California Transportation Commission (CTC) allocated more than $3 billion to repair and improve transportation infrastructure throughout the state, including $1.3 billion in funding from the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to support local projects and to protect local roads and bridges from extreme weather and natural disasters. Senate Bill (SB) 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017, accounts for more than $930 million of the total funding. “The CTC’s decision to invest in our state highways while protecting city and county infrastructure will help make California’s roadways safer and more resilient one shovel, one project and one community at a time,” said Caltrans Director Tony Tavares. Projects approved in District 12 include:
• Caltrans to stabilize eroded Highway 17 slope near Scotts Valley (East Bay Times). Millions in state transportation funds have been allocated to stabilize a slope on Highway 17 near Scotts Valley that eroded during a series of heavy rainstorms more than five years ago. The California Transportation Commission, as part of a $3 billion infrastructure package, has committed $4.4 million to the project located half a mile south of Sugarloaf Road near Scotts Valley. Caltrans has been the lead agency in designing repairs and after the project is put out to bid, it will administer construction which is planned to begin in December, according to Caltrans Spokesperson Kevin Drabinski.
• Richards Boulevard / I-80 Interchange Improvements (City of Davis). This project will improve traffic operations and multimodal safety at the interchange by reconfiguring the ramps and adding a grade separated shared-use path. This project has existed in concept for many years, and has been working in parallel with the Caltrans Managed Lanes Project. The project will reconfigure the existing west bound I-80 on ramp, and off ramps to a “tight diamond” interchange, and construct a grade separated multi use path to cross the Richards Boulevard overpass. There will also be intersection improvements at Richards Boulevard, and Olive Drive, Eastbound I-80, and Research Park Drive. Once the “tight diamond” interchange improvements are complete, the project will permanently close the Westbound I-80 off ramp to Olive Drive.
• ＄Here comes Soscol Junction, Napa County’s biggest road project in years (Napa Valley Register). Drivers, prepare for the Soscol Junction Experience. This isn’t an amusement park ride. It’s Napa County’s largest road project in years, one that will turn a major, traffic-clogged intersection into a $54 million interchange, with construction to begin the week of July 18. Soscol Junction is where Highway 29, Highway 221 and Soscol Ferry Road converge near the Butler Bridge and Grapecrusher statue. It’s an entrance to Napa Valley’s world-famous wine country and a nerve center of the regional road system. It’s also a place where drivers might curse a congestion-creating traffic signal. The Soscol Junction project is designed to remove that signal and cut rush-hour delays there from several minutes to a matter of seconds. Drivers over the next few years will see dump trucks and bulldozers reshape the landscape. They’ll see Highway 29 elevated and made free-flowing. They’ll see two roundabouts created underneath to regulate Highway 221 and Soscol Ferry Road traffic.
• Marin highway flooding projects get $30M from state (Marin I-J). As sea-level rise and flooding threaten to cut off Marin City from emergency services and block one of the busiest North Bay highways, the state Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom have allocated $30 million in the state budget to begin planning for defenses. The budget adopted on Tuesday provides $20 million to begin designing flood protections on Highway 37 and the Novato Creek Bridge. Another $10 million is for planning defenses for recurring flooding on Highway 101 that blocks the only road in and out of Marin City. “Living here in Marin we already know what our future looks like with the climate crisis,” said state Sen. Mike McGuire, who sits on the Senate transportation and budget committees. “Marin County is home to some of the most vulnerable highway corridors in the state.” Highway 37, the 21-mile link between Interstate 80 and Highway 101 near Novato, is used daily by nearly 50,000 commuters, many of them making their way to jobs in the North Bay.

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