California Highway Headlines for May 2016 – Observations Along the Road

userpic=roadgeeking This post provides links to articles I’ve seen over the past month related to California Highways. As I am finally working on an update to the California Highways pages (Memorial Day weekend), those items that have not yet been processed into the pages are shown with ♦. [Update: Didn’t finish Memorial Day weekend. I have a few more AAroads articles to go through, plus the legislature actions and the CTC minutes. It’ll be done sometime in June]

Why a historic highway that united California’s two halves may never reopen to cars. Harrison Scott discovered the Ridge Route in 1955. Then 18, he was out freewheeling in a brand new Ford he’d bought with a loan from his parents. The sinuous route, an engineering marvel that tamed the San Gabriel Mountains through the highway corridor that is now known as the Grapevine, was already a relic. Opened in 1915, and credited by historians with uniting the economies of Northern and Southern California, the notoriously slow and dangerous roadway had been superseded in 1933 by Highway 99, itself to be replaced in 1970 by the 5 Freeway. Scott liked the abandoned motorway, but did not return to the route until exploring it again in 1991, this time on a road trip with his son. Spurred by the boy’s interest, and retired from a long career with Pacific Telephone, Scott became an amateur historian and began collecting photos and stories of the highway.
It’s a mess along O.C.’s part of PCH, traffic study says. Traffic congestion and safety conflicts among vehicles, bicyclists and pedestrians continue to plague traveling conditions along Orange County’s portion of Pacific Coast Highway, according to a newly published transportation study. The nearly $400,000 report, released last month and conducted by the Orange County Transportation Authority and the California Department of Transportation, examined the iconic but aging 37-mile highway from Seal Beach to San Clemente.
Highway 121 repairs could cost $5.5 million. Highway 121 is at least several months and $5.5 million away from once again having both lanes open north of Wooden Valley Road between Napa and Lake Berryessa. A section of the northbound lane on the narrow, two-lane road slipped a half-dozen feet during early March storms. The road reopened on March 25 with temporary signals in place to alternate traffic in the southbound lane.

$2.8 million wildlife undercrossing project begins north of Truckee . Every year, roughly 200 people are killed in as many as 2 million wildlife-vehicle collisions at a cost of more than $8 billion, according to the Western Transportation Institute. The Highway 89 Stewardship Team is paving the way toward reducing such startling figures in the greater Truckee region. On Monday, the team officially broke ground on the Sierra 89 Wildlife Undercrossings project in a ceremony held at Sagehen Summit along Highway 89 north of Truckee, near Sagehen Creek Field Station.
Barstow belatedly looks at Route 66 plan. The city of Barstow, California, has hired an Oregon company to come up with a possible strategic plan to help revive its downtown and Route 66 corridor.
Cajon Pass Commuter: 11-hour closures on I-15. The end is near, but there’s still some pain to be had — if you head down the hill late at night or early in the mornings on the weekends. That was the word from Caltrans this week as they emailed a Devore Interchange alert to all on their mailing list. Starting at 9 p.m. Friday, three of four lanes of southbound Interstate 15 in the Cajon Pass were closed for 11 hours (until 8 a.m. Saturday) between Kenwood Avenue and south of the Devore Interchange so crews could replace sections of concrete that have deteriorated.
Highways leading nowhere. Driving north from Bakersfield on Highway 99, a motorist soon encounters an off-ramp onto Highway 65, which runs up the east side of the Central Valley – but not very far. The pavement ends about 70 miles north of Bakersfield, near the farming town of Exeter. However, 200-plus miles further to the north, another 35-mile stretch of Highway 65 connects Marysville, north of Sacramento, with Roseville through a region that has seen explosive residential, commercial and industrial growth in the last few decades.
Marin, Sonoma agencies battle over $18 million. A request to use part of an $18.2 million pot of federal funding toward the San Rafael Transit Center to accommodate commuter rail is ruffling feathers in Sonoma County, where leaders would rather use the money to widen the Novato Narrows on Highway 101. The general managers of the Golden Gate Bridge district and Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit agency wrote a joint letter to the state secretary of transportation last week asking for $12 million of the money to be used for work on the San Rafael Transit Center to prepare rail to go through the site and to Larkspur, which could happen as soon as 2018.
Interstate 5 widening to begin late this summer. A massive plan to widen Interstate 5 in northern San Diego County is set to kick off late this summer and could transform one of the most heavily traveled freeways in the state. The work is part of the $6.5 billion North Coast Corridor Program — led by the California Department of Transportation and the San Diego Association of Governments — that will ultimately stretch 27 miles from La Jolla to Oceanside. The plan includes an ambitious collection of transportation, environmental, and coastal access projects that will take shape over the next 30 years.
$80 million buys a smarter freeway for East Bay drivers. Those 133 new, high-tech electronic signs that have been staring blankly at motorists for months along Interstate 80 in the East Bay are about to be activated — but the $80 million price tag has some wondering if it’s a traffic fix or a boondoggle. (SF Chronicle Subscription Required)
San Francisco’s Plan to Bury a Freeway. When the Golden Gate Bridge opened in 1937, the road leading to it, a hulking viaduct of concrete and steel known as Doyle Drive, split the northern tip of San Francisco in two, cutting right through the Presidio, the U.S. Army base that guarded the mouth of San Francisco Bay. For as long as the Presidio remained a base, the land’s division into two pieces wasn’t a huge problem
Three Senate hopefuls agree on 710 extension. The proposed 710 Freeway extension figured prominently in a recent candidates’ debate for the 25th state Senate District. Candidates Katherine Perez-Estolano, former state Assemblyman Anthony Portantino and retired Pasadena Police Lt. Phlunte’ Riddle – the three candidates attending the League of Women Voters forum – each oppose the long-simmering proposal to connect the 710 to both the 134 and 210 freeways.
Two Coasts, Two Cities, Two Signs: The Story Behind The ‘Ocean City MD 3073’ Sign. Motorists traveling on 50 East in Sacramento may be familiar with this perfectly normal-looking mileage sign — on first glance, it’s like every other mileage sign along California highways listing the cities you’ll be passing with the number of miles to go. But on second glance, this sign gives pause — Placerville is about an hour away, and South Lake Tahoe double that, depending on traffic. But why does far-off Ocean City, Maryland merit a mention? The simple fact is that US 50 paves 3,000-plus miles from Ocean City, Maryland to Sacramento, California, but there’s more to the story.
Temporary Ramp Closure at Brisco Road . The northbound US 101 on and off-ramps at Brisco Road, and nearby intersections, experience severe congestion at peak travel times. The City is investigating two project alternatives to alleviate this congestion. The first alternative closes northbound on and off-ramps at Brisco Road. The second alternative relocates the northbound on and off-ramps at Brisco Road.
Arroyo Grande considers permanent closure of Brisco Road ramps . The city of Arroyo Grande is considering whether to permanently close the northbound Highway 101 on- and off-ramps at Brisco Road and will close those ramps for 10 weeks to study the issue. The northbound on- and off-ramps will close Tuesday and remain closed until Dec. 7 while a traffic study is done to examine the impacts if the ramps were closed permanently.
Notorious U.S. 101 Intersection in Arroyo Grande to be Closed Down. If you’re driving northbound on U.S. 101 through the Five Cities area over the next ten weeks you will notice a major change. The northbound off and on ramps at Brisco Road are shutting down for the next ten weeks as the City of Arroyo Grande conducts a traffic study to determine the impact of the closure. Anyone who drives northbound on Highway 101 through the Five Cities area knows the Brisco Road off and on
OCTA Receives Information Pertaining to the I-405 Express Lanes Toll Policy. Over the past few months, OCTA’s traffic and revenue consultant, Stantec, has been compiling forecasts for traffic volumes and potential revenues for the I-405 Express Lanes. Stantec presented its initial findings at the Board meeting on April 25. Information from this study and other material will be used to develop the I-405 Express Lanes Toll Policy. Later that day, OCTA hosted a special workshop with Stantec and staff from affected cities along the I-405 corridor to review the information and encourage group discussion.
Honk: Freeway ride will be smoothed out. Hello Honk. Recently there has been quite a bit of surface repair on the southbound I-5 freeway, between El Toro and La Paz roads. This repair is very noticeable: concrete portions are yellow and have a rough texture. Why? These repairs stick out like a sore thumb and feel anything but smooth.
Tuolumne Bridge Getting Earthquake Readiness Upgrades. Caltrans is sinking nearly $21-million into the project on Highway 120 that millions travel to enter Yosemite National Park, which in turn helps boost the economy along the corridor.
Lack of funds found to stall key Bay Area transportation projects. Political gridlock in Sacramento and Washington threatens to stall planned improvements to the Bay Area’s crowded and congested transportation system, according to a study released Wednesday by a national transportation research group. Just three of the Bay Area’s 20 most-critical transportation projects are fully funded, 11 have only partial funding and six aren’t likely to get enough money to even break ground until at least 2020, the report said.
PD Editorial: Opening the bottleneck on Highway 101 . Congress earmarked $20 million for ferry service from Port Sonoma under mysterious circumstances in 2005. The ferry plan is long forgotten, and the earmarked money still is in the federal treasury, with $18.2 million available for an alternative North Bay transportation project. A dispute is shaping up over how it should be spent, but there’s no mystery this time. The top priority must be widening Highway 101 through the Novato Narrows.
STATE ROUTE 52 DESIGNATED A SCENIC HIGHWAY. After more than four years of efforts by local environmentalists and community leaders to convince the state to take action on a 25-year-old resolution, Caltrans and the City of San Diego have designated State Route 52 a Scenic Highway. The designation applies to a stretch from mile post 9.5 near Santo Road in San Diego to mile post 13 near Mast Boulevard in Santee. The highway passes through Mission Trails Regional Park.
Passing Lane Project on SR-246. A safety project to construct passing lanes in both directions on State Route 246 near Lompoc from Cebada Canyon Road to Hapgood Road (East) will continue with paving for a two-week period near Hapgood Road (East) beginning Monday, May 16. Motorists will encounter one-way reversing traffic control with flaggers Monday through Thursday from 8:30 am until 4:00 pm. Delays are not expected to exceed 15 minutes.
Panel OKs $15 million plan to keep Bay Bridge rods from failing. A committee that oversees seismic retrofit work for the Bay Bridge approved a $15 million plan Thursday to keep water from corroding rods designed to keep the new eastern span’s tower safe in a major earthquake. The panel also approved $1 million to survey the foundation for additional corrosion.
Bay Area Transportation Projects in Funding Jeopardy?. BART’s expansion into the South Bay, along with several other Bay Area transportation projects, could be in jeopardy because of a lack of funds, according to a national transportation research group.
Caltrans Proposes $10M Plan to Strengthen Rods on Eastern Span of Bay Bridge. Caltrans has a $10 million plan to keep corrosive Bay water away from high strength rods designed to secure the tower of the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge in a quake. Brian Maroney, the chief engineer on the $6.5 billion project for Caltrans, said dealing with the various water issues on the span has been grueling, but the end of its troubles with water and corrosion may be in sight.
Only 3 Of Top 20 Critical Transportation Projects Funded In California. Bay Area transit planners have a long list of critical transportation projects that need to be done, and done soon, but there isn’t anywhere near enough money to fund them. BART’s entire system needs upgrades. The Bay Area’s bridges, overpasses, and freeways need work. The region also needs more buses, ferry boats, and trains.
Napa council to tackle downtown, roads, housing, cannabis . A slate of votes the Napa City Council is scheduled to take on Tuesday may affect wide swaths of local life, from the look of downtown and its traffic flow to the availability of low-cost homes and the arrival of legal marijuana sales.
Lane Improvements Ease Travel on SR-91 in Anaheim. After opening to the public last weekend, an auxiliary lane project is improving travel conditions and increasing safety for drivers along westbound SR-91 through the SR-55 interchange. The nearly 2-mile project area spans from approximately Lakeview Avenue on the east to just past Tustin Avenue on the west. Led by Caltrans with assistance from OCTA, the project extended and reconstructed lanes, the Tustin Avenue off-ramp and the Santa Ana River Bridge to provide additional capacity and eliminate extensive merging.
Project Will Improve I-5 Congestion in Santa Ana, Orange and Tustin. A project to improve traffic congestion on I-5 between SR-55 and SR-57 is moving forward. The section of I-5, used by more than 390,000 motorists each day, is currently subject to delays that are expected to increase over time. By 2030, the number of daily travelers is expected to rise to 464,000 – an increase of 19 percent.
Access to the 10 Freeway from Tippecanoe Avenue in San Bernardino got easier today. Getting on the 10 Freeway at Tippecanoe Avenue just got that much easier. Officials with San Bernardino Associated Governments and other transportation agencies celebrated Tuesday the completion of the multiyear project that will allow traffic to flow more smoothly through the interchange.
Cajon Pass and Devore Interchange Projects Completion Celebration. Caltrans officials are cordially inviting the public to celebrate the culmination of both the Cajon Pass Rehabilitation and the Devore Interchange Projects. The celebration will be held on May 20, 2016, at 9:30 a.m. at 18291 Cajon Court in San Bernardino.
Route 66 part of Devore Interchange Project not quite finished . Friday marked the finish of a huge part of the $324 million Devore Interchange Project in Southern California. However, the part that would have reconnected a two-mile section of Route 66 for the first time in decades won’t be finished for another month or two.
Inland officials celebrate completion of project to improve Cajon Pass traffic flow. Traffic flow through the Cajon Pass is getting better. After 20 years of planning and three years of construction, transportation officials on Friday celebrated the completion of the Devore Interchange improvement project, where the 215 and 15 freeways meet.
Transportation commission looks at 5-cents-a-gallon tax hike . Another tax ballot measure could be just up the road for local voters, this one hiking the price at the pump to fix the roads. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) has wanted to pass a regional gas tax for two decades. A recent poll shows a proposed, 5-cents-a-gallon tax hike across the nine-county Bay Area has 65 percent support, compared to the 66.6 percent, two-thirds vote needed to win. MTC is considering a November ballot run to strike while the poll numbers are high, though it is also considering the downsides. The firm Corey, Canapary & Galanis Research did the telephone poll of 2,048 Bay Area voters in March and April. The survey has a 2.2 percentage point margin of error.
ABAG wants full MTC merger; offers compromise. The Association of Bay Area Governments this week took an administrative step toward integrating its staff with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. The executive board adopted a resolution Thursday, also approved in similar terms by the general assembly, that would “create a new regional agency and governance model” with a fallback position to “consolidate staff functions under one executive director and enter into (an agreement) to pursue new governance options.”
State planners cut $754 million in transportation projects. The California Transportation Commission has adopted more than $754 million in cuts to planned highway, transit and other projects because of falling tax revenues tied to gas prices. The vote taken Wednesday also delays another $755 million in planned future projects.
State leaders address highway shortfall . A $57 billion, 10-year backlog to fix California’s crumbling transportation infrastructure, which includes the shortfall to widen Highway 101 through Petaluma, will not be solved without a political solution in Sacramento, state transportation officials said last week. At a town hall meeting in Petaluma on May 12, Malcom Dougherty, the director of Caltrans, told the audience that the gas tax, which has traditionally funded highway maintenance and expansion, is no longer sustainable.
These Pasadena residents want to transform the 710 ‘ditch’ into a new community. Stefano Polyzoides sees the northern stub of the 710 Freeway as a concrete wound cutting across Pasadena’s west side. To heal the scars, the nearly 1-mile long “ditch” must be redeveloped, the Pasadena-based architect said. “It’s a war zone out there, you know it, you live it,” Polyzoides said Wednesday to the members of the West Pasadena Residents Association. Polyzoides’ presentation imagined what Pasadena would look like if Caltrans did not complete the 710 Freeway and instead sold the 50-acre plot of land to the city. Polyzoides’ design, shown at the annual meeting of the Association, replaces the freeway stub with housing, businesses and a tree-covered boulevard. The state-owned land between California Boulevard and the 210 Freeway represents nearly 2.5 million square feet of potential development next door to the city’s thriving Old Pasadena district.
Officials celebrate completion of I-15 and I-215 freeway projects north of Fontana. At a ribbon cutting ceremony on May 20, Caltrans (District 8) celebrated the completion of two new projects in the area north of Fontana and an innovative new approach to construction that is saving the state of California millions of dollars, officials said. The recently completed Cajon Pass Rehabilitation and the Devore Interchange projects, located on Interstates 15 and 215 in San Bernardino, are the first two “design-build” projects in the Inland Empire. Design-build delivery, made possible by Senate Bill 4, is a method in which both the design and construction efforts are led by one source. As a result of this new approach, Cajon Pass was finished two years early, and Devore Interchange a year and a half early, officials said.
Relief for Camino Capistrano traffic coming. Developers of the 416-home Pacifica San Juan development are looking to make life easier for I-5 drivers who use the often-backed-up northbound Camino Capistrano exit. In coming weeks, work will begin to convert the disjointed intersection at the top of the off-ramp into a roundabout, aiming to smooth the flow of traffic.
Highway 3 reopens to traffic. Starting at 7 a.m. today, drivers can take Highway 3 now that repairs have been made to the section that collapsed in a March landslide. Construction isn’t complete, but motorists can drive on an unpaved surface subject to traffic control, the California Department of Transportation has announced.
Six Freeway Removals That Changed Their Cities Forever. It seems counterintuitive, right? Rip out eight lanes of freeway through the middle of your metropolis and you’ll be rewarded with not only less traffic, but safer, more efficient cities? But it’s true, and it’s happening in places all over the world.
Golden Gate Bridge seeks suicide barrier engineers in 2016-17 budget. The Golden Gate Bridge will soon gain a new safety net to deter suicides — but first, the net needs engineers. That’s why the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District’s latest budget for fiscal year 2016-17 includes funding for two new engineers, along with a bevy of other funding asks for The City’s iconic northern gateway and transit systems.
Highway 101 bike path garners statewide honor. A statewide honor has gone to a project that includes a bike path along Highway 101 linking Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. The California Transportation Foundation on Wednesday named the project as the Bicycle Pedestrian Project of the Year at its annual awards luncheon in Sacramento.
United Bridge Partners floats plan to lift ‘huge problem’ of Hwy. 37 traffic via tolls. A proposal has been floated to alleviate tieups on Highway 37 decades before the state could fund the project by adding an elevated toll road, and Santa Rosa Junior College is planning how to use $410 million in bond money to upgrade its five sites including campuses in Santa Rosa and Petaluma. United Bridge Partners wants to expand the oft-congested section of Highway 37 between Sears Point and Mare Island, restore wetlands and do it decades sooner by charging tolls.
Class action lawsuit alleges illegal toll collection in Orange County, Calif.. A California man has filed a class action lawsuit against California’s Transportation Corridor Agencies for illegally issuing toll fees. The lawsuit alleges toll roads are not clearly marked, resulting in motorists unknowingly traveling on toll roads. Attorneys for Ebrahim Mahda accuse TCA of operating toll roads that mislead the public, which is against California law. Specifically, the lawsuit claims the roads are poorly marked, and unsuspecting motorists are subject to “improper and unlawful fines” since their vehicles are not equipped with FasTrak transponders.
Bay Bridge Builder Blames Caltrans for Problems, Says It’s Owed $40M. The builder of the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge now blames Caltrans for high profile troubles that have dogged the project since 2013 and claims the agency owes it $40 million as a result of bungling, NBC Bay Area News has learned. In a complaint lodged to the state Office of Arbitrative Hearings filed Monday, American Bridge/Fluor, the joint venture contractor that constructed the suspension bridge, says Caltrans owes it $40.7 million for various problems of its own making.
Op-Ed Why I hate Waze . On a recent evening, caught in traffic on the way to Hollywood, my wife suggested we use Waze or Google Maps — some app or another to help us work around the crush of cars and trucks that mired the macadam like a mud flow. This is the sort of technology I should like; I will go blocks out of my way, a mile even, to avoid a static line of cars. But instead, Waze just makes me anxious, with its assumption that I can’t get around Los Angeles on my own. Navigation, to me, is what the city is all about, and not just navigating the streets but the people. It’s one of the secret thrills of urban living, knowing how to get along, how to carve a passage amid the millions with whom we share the territory. Growing up in New York, I learned this early, and although I haven’t lived in Manhattan for many years, I still edge my way across a crowded sidewalk and board the last car of the subway so I get a seat.