Last time, I mentioned the dog days of summer, and promptly got in trouble for it. Not again. Here are the headlines for the end of August:
- Fallen Caltrans worker may get honor. A stretch of State Route 94 in San Diego County may be named in honor of Stephen Palmer, Sr., a Caltrans worker killed in May 2011 while on the job.
- Highway 29 alternative in south county could be ready by 2017. Motorists could have a south county alternative to clogged Highway 29 by 2017, local officials said this week. Both Napa County and the city of American Canyon are cooperating to complete extensions of Devlin Road. It would parallel Highway 29 from Soscol Ferry Road at the Butler Bridge to Green Island Road, more than three miles to the south.
- Bay Bridge: Two-week traffic switch clock starts countdown. The buzz and hum of activity in the Bay Bridge construction zone is reaching new levels as the bridge team and the contractors start the two-week countdown clock to opening. Painters are touching up the rails and tower. Crews are installing irrigation and topsoil for landscaping near the Toll Plaza. Electricians are wrapping up the final lighting details. Equipment trucks rumble back and forth. Nothing short of a “blizzard can stop the Labor Day weekend switch-over now,” Bay Bridge spokesman Andrew Gordon joked Tuesday following an update on what to expect during the five-day closure. The entire bridge — western and eastern spans — is scheduled to close at 8 p.m. Aug. 28, and reopen to traffic at 5 a.m. Sept. 3.
- Caltrans plans project to ease Capital City Freeway bottleneck in east Sacramento. One of the Sacramento region’s vintage traffic bottlenecks – the eastbound snarl on the Capital City Freeway – may be in line for a partial pressure release. But the trade-off will be extra traffic on some central city streets.
- Could A 405 Expressway Tunnel Dramatically Improve Traffic? Imagine you’re traveling on the 405. It’s backed up. A bad accident ahead. Next exit ahead… the 405 tunnel. That’s right. A tunnel that would take you along an expressway under the 405 through the Sepulveda Pass or, a park and ride where you can pick up a subway. This may be LA’s westside future.
- Caltrans may face fines for Willits project. Caltrans may face fines or even be forced to stop work on a controversial project that is out of compliance with environmental regulations. Caltrans is building a $300 million freeway bypass around Willits in Mendocino County. The freeway goes right through a sensitive wetlands area, so Caltrans is required to do $50 million in environmental improvements to compensate. However, the US Army Corps of Engineers says Caltrans failed to get a qualified contractor and meet required deadlines for the environmental work. The Corps calls the violations “very serious.”
- Willits finally getting freeway bypass but isn’t sure it still wants it. The project was proudly unveiled in this Mendocino County lumber town in the mid-1950s, when the car was king and the future looked bright. Instead of channeling Highway 101 traffic right down Main Street, a four-lane bypass dubbed the Willits Freeway would route vacationing motorists and commercial trucks around the community’s periphery.
- Bridge Troll’s fate hangs in limbo. After years of roller-coaster costs, curses and delays, one key question about the new, $6.4 billion Bay Bridge eastern span remains: What happens to the Bridge Troll?
- Never Built: Los Angeles- Causeway. Gayle Anderson was live in Los Angeles to see the exhibit Never Built: Los Angeles at the Architecture and Design (A+D) Museum of Los Angeles. Never Built: Los Angeles explores what Los Angeles would have looked like through a number of never built architectural projects.
- Greenbrae interchange group reaches consensus on Hwy. 101 improvements. During its final meeting, the group of elected officials tasked with identifying alternatives to a $143 million plan to reconstruct the Larkspur-Corte Madera stretch of Highway 101 reached consensus on a handful of improvements now slated for consideration by the Transportation Authority of Marin.
- Old Bay Bridge east span to be dismantled from top. Even before the last cars pass over the 76-year-old eastern Bay Bridge span, demolition crews have been busily prepping for its removal. “They’ve been surveying … and doing a lot of paperwork and environmental compliance,” says Andrew Gordon, spokesman for the bridge project. Environmental restrictions bar dynamiting the old span, so it will have to be dismantled piece by piece – west to east and from the top to the bottom – to avoid a collapse.
- Where goest thou, Bay Bridge Troll? While Caltrans spokesmen are busy talking about the new span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge that will open Sept. 3, a small group of inquiring minds want to know what will become of the Bay Bridge Troll once the old bridge is dismantled? Here’s an update on the troll. Even more updates: There’s a new troll.
- Caltrans never approved design of Bay Bridge S-curve. Caltrans managers never approved the perilous design of the Bay Bridge’s S-curve – now being demolished to make way for the new eastern span – and authorized the use of portable concrete rails despite the risk of vehicles hurtling over the side, according to documents from a wrongful death suit the state agency recently settled for $700,000.
