🛣️ Headlines about California Highways – July 2019

[cahwyguy]

It's a new month, and you know what that means: Time for headlines. Here are your headlines for July:

https://cahighways.org/wordpress/?p=15437

As always: Ready, set, discuss. Note that about half of these were included in my July Highway Page Updates, which were posted as https://cahighways.org/wordpress/?p=15446 , which you are also welcome to discuss.

[Plutonic Panda]

I left this comment on the Pasadena Article:

Horrible, awful people who's name will be viewed as a detriment to the betterment of society all so they can preserve their little bubble. I do suspect this tunnel will be revived but California has become a completely dysfunctional state allowing a few selfish voices to outweigh the working class commuters and by far the larger region who would greatly benefit from this project. Absolutely sickening and this process needs to be changed.

Much of the campaign was based on lies like the parade not happening again if the freeway were built or the vibrations being detrimental to the structures above. No time was given to find extra money only the lies saying it can't be found so shut it down without giving it a real chance. Fear mongering and insanity ultimately prevailed. No consideration was given to potential commuters or business owners in other communities that would have benefited from the tunnel.

Shameful.

[TheStranger]

Is that Quail Lakes Parkway project in Union City basically the Route 84 realignment?

[Max Rockatansky]

Some thoughts....

-  I have to agree that CA 2/Glendale Freeway is probably the best freeway in metro Los Angeles for vistas.  I usually try to stay out that way near Eagle Rock while visiting L.A. these days.

-  Amboy frequently gets featured on the National Old Trails Road page on Facebook.  The alignment of the NOTR and early US 66 are bizarre by modern standards and hardly even recognizable from the modern County Route 66. 

-  Strange to see a new scenic highway with CA 128.  CA 128 is certainly deserving but I'm honestly surprised to see any new designations gain any traction. 

-  Regarding the North Lincoln Highway over Donner Pass it utilized the Dutch Flat & Donner Lake Road before Donner Pass Road was built.  That cover photo in the article is of the China Wall subway of the Central Pacific and is largely still present.  It takes some real searching to find the dirt grade of the early roadway but it largely is still there, the underpass is signed with a Lincoln Highway shield.

[sparker]

Where to begin?  OK, Carbon Canyon/CA 142.  The portion in D8 (the east side of the "pass") is characterized in part by a series of hairpin reverse curves that no semi-truck would even consider negotiating -- but as I've did that corridor multiple times in the mid-2000's -- often during afternoon commutes (it starts backing up all the way to Imperial & Valencia in Yorba Linda) -- there are a lot of larger single-unit ("bobtail") trucks that use that route as a shortcut during those same commute hours (yes, CA 57 and CA 91, flanking 142, are much, much worse!).  And they do create problems trying to negotiate those downhill hairpins at around 5-7 mph -- so a ban -- on through trucks (some delivery vehicles would be needed for the Canyon community itself) would probably be an appropriate response to the situation.

Since CA 74 is functionally severed up in the mountains east of Hemet (washouts; see the OP's Idyllwild isolation issue), traffic east of Hemet is likely well below the usual level -- good time for Caltrans to take care of the median of that route and get it ready for when the section up the hill is reopened.  But in that area (Hemet/San Jacinto) plans tend to be forwarded and then unceremoniously dropped or postponed -- the long-anticipated realignment of CA 74 away from Florida Street south onto the Domengoni Parkway is one of those long-range plans -- but right now the CA 79 realignment west of Hemet seems to be the priority project there -- for now. 

The improvements along CA 18 west of I-15 (safety median, channelization, etc.) are the latest in D8's attempt to convert that stretch of road from the "wild west" 2-lane high-speed arterial it historically has been to the suburban server it currently fuctions as courtesy of the rapid expansion of Adelanto and the west side of Victorville as (relatively) low-cost exurbs;  when I was living out there ('09-'12) it seemed -- even during the last gasps of the recession and housing scandal -- as if new tracts were popping up in that neck of the woods on both sides of US 395.  That area will probably continue to grow by leaps and bounds simply because (a) the housing cost differential and (b) the establishment of more and more amenities such as retail, restaurants, and the like.  I'll get back to this a bit later in the post as part of another discussion.

Looks like CA 99 through Kingsburg & Selma is going through another spate of construction -- that stretch doesn't ever seem to stay constant; it seems like perpetual construction has gone on there for at least the last 30 years!  Of course, the presence of the original segmented concrete pavement on that facility dating from the early '60's has contributed to the interminable rebuilds.  One of these days they might just get it done to everyone's satisfaction (cough, cough!). 

Speaking of CA 99 -- those temporary interim NB "express lanes" in Bakersfield might just be a blessing in disguise -- a way to expedite through traffic without having to do a complete (and expensive) facility rebuild.  It'll be interesting to see how that configuration works out -- and whether it causes any issues not related to driver error!

It just might be me -- but installing "traffic calming" measures (I'm guessing a roundabout or two plus speed-control devices such as lane narrowing and the occasional "hump") on an interregional artery such as CA 20 north of Clear Lake might just be a matter of prioritizing the trees over the whole forest.  Then again, it might be the first "shot across the bow" in an effort to effectively reroute through traffic around the south side of the lake onto more amenable (and newer) facilities (CA 53 and CA 29) by making the journey around the north side more onerous that it already is (ever get stuck behind a RV on that section?  Not a lot of fun!). 

I think the "Texas U-turn" concept is just fine -- but the Port of L.A. is one of the few places where dual-direction frontage roads would be totally useful, given the truck traffic in & out of the adjacent port facilities.  Unless the agency adopts the TX-style practice of such facilities along suburban & rural freeways, don't expect to see them proliferate elsewhere in the state network. 

I'm not going to make any comments about Sen. Weiner's SB 127 until I've read it completely; but the Citylab reprint is just another screed corresponding with their, and their like-minded PIRG cohorts, teardown/BANANA proclivities -- and their never-ending war with the driving public.  Segueing from this to the Caltrans proclamation that except for the CA 71 upgrades and the High Desert Corridor, freeway construction in greater L.A. is "finished" is a song I've heard reiterated for the last several decades.  I'll agree that new corridors through existing developed areas are never likely to see the light of day, but if outlying areas continue to develop -- as per my High Desert comments earlier in the post -- the pressure emanating from those areas may continue to foment exceptions to that particular "rule".  I suppose utterings of that sort could be construed as like the English language -- for every "rule" there are/will be multiple exceptions! 

Closing note for now -- I'm surprised that the Donner Pass section of former US 40 wasn't retained within the state highway system as a "scenic alternative" to I-80 (I know, the freeway's scenic enough by itself!) as well as state-maintained access to the residences on the north shore of Donner Lake.  Hey, the number "240" is once again available as a state route -- just thinking!