California

[sparker]

I shot this last April, on a trip when I drove up the west coast.  I started in Phoenix, AZ, where I rented a one way car which I dropped off in Portland, OR, twelve days later.

My route involved driving from Phoenix to San Diego along Interstate 8.  I then spent a couple of days touring around San Diego and LA, before heading up to Reno on CA-14 and US-395.  I spent the night outside of Lake Tahoe, and then took 80 across into Sacramento.  From there, I went into San Francisco for part of the day, and then drove up the coast along SR-1 and US-101 all the way to Aberdeen, Washington.  I spent a day and a half in Seattle, and then drove back down to Portland where I spend the day before flying back home later that evening.

So far, I have only uploaded a few videos from that trip.  This was my third upload, which was preceded by videos of I-210 and SR-134 through  suburban LA, and a short freeway tour of Phoenix.  I took quite a few vids though, and plan to be uploading them more frequently in the next few weeks.

I-210 and 134 vid:

Phoenix Freeway tour:

Sounds like my kind of trip!  Hope you enjoyed the coast northward from SF to WA -- I find it a spectacular drive.  Seattle & Portland are definitely worth in-depth visits; I lived in the latter for 4 years and still have friends in Seattle as well.  Look forward to as much video as you can provide -- thanks for what you've released so far!

[cpzilliacus]

N.Y. Times: Los Angeles Drivers on the 405 Ask: Was $1.6 Billion Worth It?

It is the very symbol of traffic and congestion. Interstate 405, or the 405, as it is known by the 300,000 drivers who endure it morning and night, is the busiest highway in the nation, a 72-mile swerving stretch of pavement that crosses the sprawling metropolis of Los Angeles.

So it was that many Angelenos applauded when officials embarked on one of the most ambitious construction projects in modern times here: a $1 billion initiative to widen the highway. And drivers and others put up with no shortage of disruption – detours and delays, highway shutdowns, neighborhood streets clogged with cars – in the hopes of relieving one of the most notorious bottlenecks anywhere.

Six years after the first bulldozer rolled in, the construction crews are gone. A new car pool lane has opened, along with a network of on- and offramps and three new earthquake-resistant bridges.

But the question remains: Was it worth it?

[AsphaltPlanet]

The thing that strikes me the most with the Sepulveda Pass project, and it`s associated cost overruns, was now, given that the project ended up costing $1.6 billion, would it have been better value to widen the highway with two lanes, instead of simply the northbound carpool lane.

For such a project, the costs associated with widening the highway by a little, or by a lot would not increase in a linear maner.  Given the substantial cost increase, it may have been better value to have selected a wider cross-section that may have given CalTrans more flexibility.  Sepulveda Pass may have been a great candidate for the start of an express toll lane network, for example.

[andy3175]

Plans to add HOV lane to US 101 in Santa Barbara County have advanced, with construction expected to begin in 2019 ...

https://www.noozhawk.com/article/caltrans_presents_revised_eir_highway_widening_project

Nearly a year after a judge ruled that part of its final environmental impact report was inadequately done, Caltrans on Thursday night presented its revised draft EIR for the Highway 101 widening project between Santa Barbara and Carpinteria.

The document was released earlier this month, kicking off a 60-day public commenting period for the final phase of the long-awaited Highway 101 widening project.

The phase will add a high-occupancy vehicle lane in each direction of the freeway along the 10.9-mile stretch between the Andree Clark Bird Refuge in Santa Barbara and just south of Bailard Avenue in Carpinteria.

Under the plan, the interchanges at Sheffield Drive in Montecito and at Cabrillo Boulevard and Hot Springs Road in Santa Barbara will also be reconstructed, eliminating the area's left-hand offramps.

The EIR revision came after a lawsuit challenged the document, arguing that Caltrans failed to adequately analyze the impacts to local intersections and cumulative traffic impacts from the project.

The original EIR was approved in August 2014, and Superior Court Judge Thomas Anderle ordered the revision this past January. Only the intersections section of the original EIR had to be redone.

Also notable is this quote:

"This project is going to be the last freeway lanes that we're going to build in this part of the corridor in any of our lifetimes,"  said Scott Eades, Caltrans' Highway 101 corridor manager. "We're not designing this project to build another lane at some point in the future. Literally, we're designing this project to be the ultimate capacity for this corridor."

[andy3175]

SR 299 is closed due to earth movement at Big French Creek near Del Loma (between SR 3 and SR 96 on the way to the coast). Caltrans hopes to reopen the route to controlled one-way traffic next month. The detour/alternate route is SR 36.

http://www.actionnewsnow.com/news/caltrans-hwy-299-closed-again-at-big-french-creek-until-early-january/

[Max Rockatansky]

SR 299 is closed due to earth movement at Big French Creek near Del Loma (between SR 3 and SR 96 on the way to the coast). Caltrans hopes to reopen the route to controlled one-way traffic next month. The detour/alternate route is SR 36.

http://www.actionnewsnow.com/news/caltrans-hwy-299-closed-again-at-big-french-creek-until-early-january/

That's one hell of a detour if you had to head to Eureka, almost as bad as when 3 was shut down earlier in the year.

[hm insulators]

I shot a video of the Antelope Valley Freeway (SR-14) northerly from the Newhall Interchange back in April, 2016.  I just uploaded it with some signs and what not.  This is an awesome freeway through the mountains:

It's interesting that there are still stretches of that freeway that are only two-lane each way (not counting the carpool lanes) with the enormous population growth of the Palmdale/Lancaster area over the last thirty years.

[hm insulators]

I shot this last April, on a trip when I drove up the west coast.  I started in Phoenix, AZ, where I rented a one way car which I dropped off in Portland, OR, twelve days later.

My route involved driving from Phoenix to San Diego along Interstate 8.  I then spent a couple of days touring around San Diego and LA, before heading up to Reno on CA-14 and US-395.  I spent the night outside of Lake Tahoe, and then took 80 across into Sacramento.  From there, I went into San Francisco for part of the day, and then drove up the coast along SR-1 and US-101 all the way to Aberdeen, Washington.  I spent a day and a half in Seattle, and then drove back down to Portland where I spend the day before flying back home later that evening.

So far, I have only uploaded a few videos from that trip.  This was my third upload, which was preceded by videos of I-210 and SR-134 through  suburban LA, and a short freeway tour of Phoenix.  I took quite a few vids though, and plan to be uploading them more frequently in the next few weeks.

I-210 and 134 vid:

Phoenix Freeway tour:

I grew up right near Pasadena; in fact, I'll be seeing the New Year's Day parade this January.

[hm insulators]

N.Y. Times: Los Angeles Drivers on the 405 Ask: Was $1.6 Billion Worth It?

It is the very symbol of traffic and congestion. Interstate 405, or the 405, as it is known by the 300,000 drivers who endure it morning and night, is the busiest highway in the nation, a 72-mile swerving stretch of pavement that crosses the sprawling metropolis of Los Angeles.

So it was that many Angelenos applauded when officials embarked on one of the most ambitious construction projects in modern times here: a $1 billion initiative to widen the highway. And drivers and others put up with no shortage of disruption – detours and delays, highway shutdowns, neighborhood streets clogged with cars – in the hopes of relieving one of the most notorious bottlenecks anywhere.

Six years after the first bulldozer rolled in, the construction crews are gone. A new car pool lane has opened, along with a network of on- and offramps and three new earthquake-resistant bridges.

But the question remains: Was it worth it?

I would say that if the heavy traffic times are only five hours a day instead of seven, I would say that's a pretty nice improvement! Of course, the peak hours from 4 to 6 PM or thereabouts are always going to be problematical. You probably could expand the 405 to 20 lanes each way and there would still be issues in that regard.

[AsphaltPlanet]

It's interesting that there are still stretches of that freeway that are only two-lane each way (not counting the carpool lanes) with the enormous population growth of the Palmdale/Lancaster area over the last thirty years.

I don't really like the idea of having a dedicated carpool lane on a freeway with only two or more general purpose lanes.  Fortunately however, the carpool restriction is only in effect during peak hours on this freeway.  Something that is very atypical of other LA area freeways.

[Occidental Tourist]

It's interesting that there are still stretches of that freeway that are only two-lane each way (not counting the carpool lanes) with the enormous population growth of the Palmdale/Lancaster area over the last thirty years.

There's no additional capacity downstream to accept the traffic from a widening upstream.

[myosh_tino]

I don't really like the idea of having a dedicated carpool lane on a freeway with only two or more general purpose lanes.  Fortunately however, the carpool restriction is only in effect during peak hours on this freeway.  Something that is very atypical of other LA area freeways.

Two general purpose plus 1 HOV lane is a pretty typical setup in northern California.  Like the CA-14 HOV lane, the northern California HOV lanes only operate during commute hours.

[compdude787]

That's how all carpool lanes should be--only HOV during peak hours.

[Occidental Tourist]

That's how all carpool lanes should be--only HOV during peak hours.

Not according to our wonderful governor.

[Max Rockatansky]

That's how all carpool lanes should be--only HOV during peak hours.

Not according to our wonderful governor.

Hey now....better careful if ASAC ever shows back up he won't get the sarcasm.

[compdude787]

That's how all carpool lanes should be--only HOV during peak hours.

Not according to our wonderful governor.

Ugh, yet another reason not to like Jerry Brown. 

[AsphaltPlanet]

Video of I-5 through San Diego:

[AsphaltPlanet]

Video of the Moreno Valley Freeway in California taken during evening dusk last April:

[Max Rockatansky]

Video of the Moreno Valley Freeway in California taken during evening dusk last April:

Man that brings back some memories for me.  I used 60 all the time to get around Riverside County, for me it was always a short cut and better route than I-10 was.  The odd thing is that the Badlands almost never back up east of Moreno Valley, I don't seem to recall traffic ever stopping there.  On an early morning that road was a lot of fun to just blast through heading eastbound before the approach to I-10.  Westbound had places for CHP to hide out but it was more difficult on the eastbound lanes.

[AsphaltPlanet]

^ Thanks for watching.  I like the Moreno Valley Freeway.  I generally like roads where you can drive fast, but that still twist and turn a lot.  I drove this road a bunch of times on my first visit to California back in 2010, and hadn't driven it since, so it was nice to get to drive it again.  (I drove it westbound after I shot this video, as my hotel for the night was in the Lake Elsinore area.

On my first visit to California, I spent a couple of days driving through the San Jacinto Mountains.  The climb up the Seven Level Hill on SR-74 is quite the drive too.

[D-Dey65]

This might upset a lot of Californians, if they haven't read or heard about it already:

http://gizmodo.com/after-more-than-100-years-californias-iconic-tunnel-tr-1790964594

[Max Rockatansky]

This might upset a lot of Californians, if they haven't read or heard about it already:

http://gizmodo.com/after-more-than-100-years-californias-iconic-tunnel-tr-1790964594

Really the only one I can think of that has a car tunnel now would be the fallen redwood in Sequoia National Park just a couple miles east of Moro Rock.

[inkyatari]

This might upset a lot of Californians, if they haven't read or heard about it already:

http://gizmodo.com/after-more-than-100-years-californias-iconic-tunnel-tr-1790964594

Really the only one I can think of that has a car tunnel now would be the fallen redwood in Sequoia National Park just a couple miles east of Moro Rock.

There's a few up by Redwood NAtional PArk

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2043

[andy3175]

This might upset a lot of Californians, if they haven't read or heard about it already:

http://gizmodo.com/after-more-than-100-years-californias-iconic-tunnel-tr-1790964594

There has been quite a bit of damage to the highway system in Northern California as a result of recent rains ("pineapple express" or "atmospheric river" are most commonly cited causes for the extensive rain and snow). Here is a short yet incomplete list of impacted highways:

- Interstate 80 at Donner Summit was closed a day or two ago due to a large mudslide and downed power lines (http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-live-winter-weather-california-i-80-closed-in-both-directions-near-1483946038-htmlstory.html)

- SR 1 near Big Sur due to fallen trees and flooding (http://www.ksbw.com/article/storm-shuts-down-highway-1-in-big-sur/8580209)

- SR 17 at Vine Hill Road (between Santa Cruz and San Jose) closed for a time due to mudslide and fallen telephone pole; the same article also mentions temporary closures along sections of SR 152 and SR 9 (http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/01/09/highway-17-northbound-in-scotts-valley-closed-because-of-mudslide/); an ABC7 news van was hit by a mudslide on SR 17 near Scotts Valley as well (http://abc30.com/weather/abc7-news-van-wrecked-by-mudslide-on-hwy-17-near-scotts-valley/1695675/)

- SR 269 was closed near Huron due to flooding (earlier this week) (http://abc30.com/traffic/main-roadway-to-huron-flooded-after-storm/1694601/). I was amused to see a quote in this article that referenced "the 269" in central California:

For Chevron owner Manjit Multani Sing, drivers getting rerouted means customers going elsewhere to fuel up. "Since it's raining and business is pretty slow and last since yesterday with the good rain and the 269 is closed and business is pretty slow now," he said.

- SR 128 and SR 175 (among other routes) in Mendocino County have been affected by local flooding (https://www.mendovoice.com/2017/01/storm/)

A few more days of rain are still in the forecast for Northern California, so we'll see how the roads handle the additional rainfall.

[coatimundi]

- Interstate 80 at Donner Summit was closed a day or two ago due to a large mudslide and downed power lines (http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-live-winter-weather-california-i-80-closed-in-both-directions-near-1483946038-htmlstory.html)

It closed today too due to white out conditions. They had an avalanche at Alpine Meadows that closed 89 for a while, then US 50 east of Placerville was stopped for at least an hour due to avalanche danger.

Local to me, both the Carmel and Salinas Rivers have topped their banks. The Davis Road bridge over the Salinas River is flooded.

Wild stuff.