California Highway News

Thursday, February 1, 2001

Commuters sound off on Kirker Pass metering plans

By Sarah Rohrs

STAFF WRITER

Published Thursday, February 1, 2001

PITTSBURG -- As East County wrestles with its oppressive traffic conditions, commuters here will likely find soon that metering lights on Kirker Pass Road have become part of their morning commute experience.

It's even possible that some motorists will eventually find themselves passing through two, or even three, sets of the lights as they make their way from Antioch to Walnut Creek.

The Contra Costa Transportation Authority is working with East County and Central County cities and other officials on the best way to manage the flow of thousands of commuters using the road each morning to get to Concord, Walnut Creek and Interstate 680.

A public meeting Tuesday at Pittsburg Civic Center gave East County residents a chance to comment on the CCTA's plans for controlling the traffic on Pittsburg streets that connect to the pass.

About 30 residents, traffic planners and elected officials attended the meeting, which followed closely on the heels of Concord's move to install metering lights on Kirker Pass Road at Myrtle Drive, near the Pavilion.

Some commuters are incensed that Concord officials seem to be trying to keep East County residents off their streets. They feel the city is showing little sympathy for their problems in dealing with an already long and frustrating commute.

Antioch Mayor Don Freitas, a CCTA and Transplan member, called for calm in handling the metering light issue and also apologized to Concord officials for his previous criticisms of their plans. He stressed the need for regional cooperation to solve the region's traffic problems.

"It's prudent and advisable to take a calm route," Freitas said.

County Supervisor Federal Glover, Transplan chairman, said the intent is to come up with an East County metering light plan that will complement the metering lights at Myrtle Drive.

Pittsburg residents posed many questions on how the lights would affect traffic on local streets and whether planners had taken into account the thousands of residents moving into the East County.

The East-Central Traffic Management Study looks at three options with the aid of computer models and traffic simulation models.

Key concerns being analyzed in the study are ensuring safety along Kirker Pass Road and also preventing the line of cars behind the red lights from clogging key intersections, particularly at Buchanan Road and Railroad Avenue in Pittsburg.

Lights might be installed at either Pheasant Drive or at Nortonville Road, two points south of the Buchanan Road intersection. A third option would be to put metering lights both at Nortonville and at Meadows Avenue, which is between Ventura Drive and Somersville Road.

So far, consultants have found that lights at Nortonville, or the combination of Nortonville and Meadows, might work.

Lights at these points would prevent backups onto Buchanan Road and also assist in Concord's aim to ease traffic on Oak Grove Road. The Pheasant Drive option would not achieve those objectives very well, consultants from DKS Associates said.

Martin Engelmann, CCTA deputy director of planning, said the metering lights would not lengthen commute times but would help improve the overall drive along Kirker Pass Road, which becomes Ygnacio Valley Road. Once drivers pass through the metered intersection, they would have a mostly smooth ride, he said.

Metering lights would not be installed until Highway 4 can handle more cars in Pittsburg, a prospect that is likely once the road is widened from four to eight lanes from Bailey to Railroad Avenue, probably by June.

Deborah Dagang, project manager for DKS Associates, the consultant that is doing the study, said studies have found drivers that go from Antioch at Somersville Road to Interstate 680 at Ygnacio Valley Road get there 9 minutes faster if they use Highway 4 than if they use Kirker Pass Road.

Pittsburg resident Gail Pearson said she might support metering lights if they would help decrease the number of drivers cutting through residential neighborhoods.

That particular problem could be handled by preventing drivers from making right turns on red lights at certain points along the Kirker Pass, Engelmann said.

Pittsburg planning commissioner Bill Glynn said he's concerned that traffic planners have not taken East County's explosive growth into account, or considered the impact of several major road construction projects that will take place in and around Pittsburg.

He also wants to see the possibility of metering lights studied at other streets, such as East Leland.

The problem "is getting bigger and our people can't move. They can't even get out of their houses," Glynn said.

Traffic officials and members of the East County Traffic Management Study Policy Advisory Committee will continue refining a draft version of the study before circulating it for review.

A final draft will be subject to more public meetings.

Freeway: One stretch left to go

By Marc Benjamin

The Fresno Bee

(Published February 1, 2001)

They call it "The Golden Triangle": a three-sided chunk of property at Clovis and Herndon avenues where city leaders envision a large business center.

With highway access, there will be offices, a hotel and a shopping area complete with lakes.

It's in the plans.

"It's what the city has been waiting for," Clovis City Council Member Pat Wynne said Wednesday as cars rolled for the first time from Herndon Avenue to Highway 168 west. "We plan on doing a first-rate job on the commercial corridor."

At 4:27 p.m., as Gilbert Juarez opened up the engine of his 1948 Chevrolet, the highway-access portion of that plan came true.

Juarez, owner of an auto upholstery shop within sight of the new freeway, called the state Department of Transportation Wednesday to ask whether he could become the first motorist to ride the new stretch of freeway.

He was accompanied by his wife, Cheryl, relatives from Pico Rivera, and his father, Lalo, who was celebrating his 89^th birthday.

"I got off work early and thought, 'This is his birthday,'" said Cheryl Juarez. "He will remember this for years to come."

In the instant that Juarez's black Fleetmaster began charging, so did nearby commercial property values and sales expectations at the Ace Hardware store visible from the highway.

"I think it's going to help," said Robert Miranda, the store manager.

"We are one of the few Aces in town, so it will be a lot easier for customers in Fresno to find because I think we will have pretty good visibility from the freeway."

In downtown Clovis, some merchants have complained about increased traffic since last summer, when Highway 168 was extended to Bullard Avenue and all eastbound traffic was pushed through the city's business district.

"There have been a lot of cars. It seems like when there are more than three cars at a traffic signal, it's busy here," said Jacquie Shore, owner of Impatience's Collectique.

She said she hasn't been bothered by the traffic, but other downtown merchants have complained.

Highway 168 east was closed Wednesday at Shaw Avenue and traffic backed up a mile to Ashlan Avenue until 5:20 p.m. when the freeway was opened to Herndon Avenue.

The final stretch of freeway to Temperance Avenue will open later this year.

The eastern portion that stretches between Temperance and Shepherd avenues already is open.

The entire cost of the project is about $140 million.

Funding is provided by the Fresno County Transportation Authority and Measure C sales tax revenue, as well as federal and state gas tax money.

$56,274 given to pro-710 battle

By Mary Schubert

Staff Writer

Thursday, February 01, 2001

$56,274 to the campaign, far outspending opponents, according to finance documents released Wednesday.

"These are people who have had a long-standing determination to rid this city of congestion," said Nat Read, spokesman for 710 Freeway Now.

The anti-freeway campaign, Neighbors For Better Transportation, has raised $11,781 through the reporting period that ended Jan. 20, according to documents filed with the Pasadena city clerk's office.

Opponents of the 710 Freeway back Measure C, authored by Councilman Steve Madison and placed on the March 6 ballot by the Pasadena City Council.

"The 710 has about as much chance of being built as a freeway to Catalina Island, and makes about as much sense," said Lorna Moore, spokeswoman for Neighbors For Better Transportation.

Endorsing the pro-freeway Measure A is 710 Freeway Now. Measure A qualified for the city election through a signature-gathering drive.

The Parsons Corp. in Pasadena, Joseph Jacobs, chairman of Pasadena-based Jacobs Engineering, and the Building Industry Association of Southern California each gave $5,000 to the pro-freeway cause.

The contributor list for Measure A also is peppered with $1,000 and $500 donations, some in the form of loans during 2000, according to the finance documents.

Gene Buchanan, owner of the Raymond Theater, made a $2,500 loan through his company, Buchanan and Associates. He also made a $2,500 loan through The Seventy-Seven North Raymond Avenue Ltd. Partnership.

Pasadena residents Ann Hight, former president of the Chamber of Commerce, and her husband Thomas made separate loans to the 710 Freeway Now campaign of $3,500 and $2,500.

Other loans came from Pasadena real estate investor James Stivers Jr., for $6,000, and from Read's Pasadena firm, Read Communications, for $8,500.

The pro-freeway campaign had to raise money to fund a petition drive. Read said Measure A needed 7,024 signatures from registered voters who live in Pasadena in order to qualify for the ballot.

"It was very expensive. We had a very short period of time, and it was too short to mobilize volunteers," Read said of the $35,959 that 710 Freeway Now paid to Progressive Campaigns, a Los Angeles firm that conducted the signature drive.

The pro-freeway camp also paid $11,000 to a New Jersey campaign consulting firm.

The anti-freeway side, meanwhile, will have an invitation-only fund-raiser at Madison's house on Sunday, Moore said.

"The urban freeway is dead. The more popularly supported projects are rail and buses," Moore said. "If this were built -- and it won't be -- it would be the last freeway built in L.A. County. They don't do this anymore because it's way too expensive."

Measure C supporters include Claire Bogaard, wife of Mayor Bill Bogaard. She gave $1,000 to Measure C, as did Carolyn Naber, president of the West Pasadena Residents Association; Pasadena resident James Rothenberg and South Pasadena resident Marie Knowles.

On the other side, $1,000 contributions to 710 Freeway Now came from Pasadena residents Everett Palmer Jr., Fred Zepeda and Kimball Smith; USC professor James Ellis, a San Marino resident; La Canada Flintridge resident Fitch Behr; the Foothill Apartment Association Political Action Committee, in Pasadena; and Santa Barbara resident Dorothy Lucas.

Other prominent freeway backers included Pasadena City College President James Kossler and former Pasadena City Councilwoman Ann-Marie Villicana, a real estate agent, who each donated $100 to Measure A. Villicana once represented southwest Pasadena, which is now Madison's district.

Ramping up to access for Westside

Published 2/1/2001

It was no accident that regional transportation planners chose Mitla's restaurant on San Bernardino's Westside Wednesday morning to unveil plans for the widening of Interstate 215.

It has been a thorn in the side of Westsiders since the freeway was constructed 40 years ago that onramps and offramps were deliberately built to direct traffic away from the city's minority neighborhoods.

Soon, the freeway that turned its back on a community is going to turn toward it and reach out.

The widening, slated for completion by 2007, gives San Bernardino Associated Governments planners an opportunity to correct the mistake made in a less enlightened time.

The new ramps will bring "equitable access" to the Westside, SANBAG project manager Dennis Saylor told about 75 elected officials, community activists and government staffers munching Spanish omelets and huevos rancheros.

When the fast-lane onramps and offramps were built in the 1960s, it set up the Westside for economic starvation. But that's not all.

It also created a public safety hazard, Saylor said.

Motorists entering the southbound 215 from Fourth Street have a short, curving slope on which to try to gain enough speed to merge with fast-lane drivers. Fast-lane drivers, meanwhile, are blindsided by slower traffic entering from the left.

On Wednesday morning, Saylor explained the solution.

A series of "braided ramps" will keep exiting and entering drivers from dangerously crossing paths as they do now. The ramps are called "braided" because they pass one over the other.

It's not going to be cheap.

Acquiring rights of way, building the reconfigured ramps and adding lanes will cost in the neighborhood of $175 million for the stretch between Orange Show Road and Base Line, Saylor said.

The freeway is hemmed in on both sides by homes and businesses, and railroad tracks on one side, north of Third Street. The redesigned ramps will destroy fewer buildings than other designs would have, Saylor said.

The more traditionally aligned ramps may bring economic parity to the Westside.

"We may see a revitalization of the Mount Vernon (Avenue) corridor, and that would certainly be a plus for this community," said Cheryl Donahue, SANBAG spokeswoman.

Some potentially momentous news was unveiled at the SANBAG breakfast.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe's Bob Brendza revealed that the railway company may build an intermodal facility -- at the former Norton Air Force Base.

The railway has outgrown its San Bernardino intermodal facility, where containerized freight is moved from truck to train, said Brendza, who is BNSF's director of facility development.

BNSF would have to build a spur to reach the airport, but it's on a tight time line.

"We've got to have it up and running in three years, or we've got to go somewhere else," Brendza told the crowd.

BNSF partnered with Hillwood Development Corp., the recently chosen master developer of the former air base, in 1988 on Alliance Airport, an all-cargo facility near Fort Worth.

If it comes off, the intermodal facility at the former military base will allow San Bernardino to market the area as a regional transportation hub, Brendza said, with rail, air and truck transport all in one location.

The railway would spend as much as $100 million on the facility, Brendza said -- matching what it has poured into capital improvements in San Bernardino since 1993.

The company's first intermodal yard added more than 500 jobs, and it also built a General Motors new-vehicle shipping facility, improved track and a plastic-pellet distribution center.

Moving 6,000-foot trains through downtown San Bernardino without disrupting traffic will be a logistical challenge.

SANBAG is seeking feedback from local residents on traffic congestion to help shape the regional transportation plan, Donahue said. Projects not in the plan can't be built.

Anyone wishing to provide feedback can download the survey form at www.scag-rtp.govconnect.org/survey, or call

Donahue at (909) 884-8276.

SACRAMENTO BEE

Safer interchange in the works Grant Line

Road-Highway 99 project will cost $25 million

By Larry Irby

A proposal to update the Grant Line Road/Highway 99 interchange is either a potential lifesaver or a scheme driven by the proposed development of the 300-acre, $500 million Lent Ranch Marketplace, depending on who is talking.

Elk Grove's Planning Commission listened to public comment on the environmental impact report for the $25 million project in a crowded Elk Grove Community Services District board room Jan. 25.

Construction could begin in the fall with a new, safer interchange coming on line in 2003.

The hook-shaped, outdated interchange -- built in 1958 -- could be reconstructed as a partial cloverleaf with new ramps, a new overcrossing, plus reconstruction and widening of Grant Line Road to the intersection of West Stockton Boulevard.

Highway 99 is the state freeway running up the Central Valley from Mexico to Oregon. It may be widened from four lanes to six lanes at Grant Line Road.

Thousands of commuters going to and from their jobs clog Grant Line Road in the Elk Grove neighborhood of Sheldon. Grant Line is a two-lane road -- a shortcut to U.S. Highway 50 -- running from Highway 99 in Elk Grove into the foothills.

The idea of expanding Grant Line Road to six lanes has been discussed, but there are no such plans on the city of Elk Grove's list of $67.1 million in transportation improvement projects.

Plans calls for installing traffic lights on Grant Line Road at Calvine Road, at a cost of $364,000, by 2003.

Signal lights may be installed at Grant Line and Wilton roads by September. The cost of the project is expected to be $436,000.

According to the environmental impact report for the interchange, the hook off-ramps have substandard deceleration and acceleration lengths. The movement of 18-wheel trucks through tight turns on and off the Highway 99 ramps also is an issue.

Many of the problems are due to the confusion and congestion caused by off-ramps that merge without stop signs, and stop signs that bring traffic to a standstill.

The northbound off-ramp at Grant Line Road and East Stockton Boulevard, for example, is near a four-way stop that ties up traffic during the morning and evening commutes.

There is a two-way stop at the northbound on-ramp. Vehicles coming off the freeway are not required to stop. Those who turn right are required to stop at the four-way stop sign at Grant Line and East Stockton Boulevard.

The southbound exit isn't any better.

Southbound motorists exiting Highway 99 aren't required to stop as they turn right onto West Stockton Boulevard and right again onto Grant Line Road. Southbound motorists also can make a left onto southbound West Stockton Boulevard.

Motorists traveling north and south on West Stockton Boulevard must stop for the traffic coming off the freeway. After stopping, they can make a left or right onto Highway 99.

Patrick Hicks, Suburban Propane manager, said a new interchange is needed at Highway 99 and Grant Line Road. The facility stores 24 million gallons of propane at Grant Line Road and East Stockton Boulevard, off Highway 99.

"I stayed at the facility for about 18 hours one night with three cameras and three monitors, counting trucks," Hicks said. "After 3,000, I gave up and went home. We're talking 80,000-pound vehicles. We need to make arrangements on Grant Line for this type of traffic."

Jan. 29 was the deadline for submitting comments on the EIR.

Lent Ranch Marketplace, proposed for construction on the west side of Highway 99 at Grant Line and Kammerer roads, was the flash point during the commission meeting. The retail development would include a fashion mall on 100 acres, plus 200 acres of additional shops, a hotel and an apartment complex.

Sacramento County's Policy Planning Commission rejected the Lent Ranch Marketplace in October 1999. George Lotz, chairman of the Elk Grove Planning Commission, and Jack LaRue voted for the Lent Ranch Marketplace.

Elk Grove resident Bob Lent, for whom the proposed retail development is named, spoke on behalf of his company, Elk Grove Milling, and his employees, who he said commute from Galt to Elk Grove via Highway 99 and Grant Line Road.

"They have reported a number of times that it's getting very dangerous because cars back up into the ongoing traffic, that the deceleration lane is filled and they are sitting ducks in there," Lent said.

Customers have telephoned Elk Grove Milling to say they were unable to arrive on time for appointments because they were stuck in traffic, he said.

"It's wrong to suggest an interchange is not needed today. There is danger there. The last accident I saw was Saturday afternoon," Lent said.

"I'm a big proponent of infrastructure first," said resident Joey Tomko. "But the reason we're here at this time, putting the cart before the horse, is because of that mall they want put in.

"This interchange is not going to help Grant Line and Waterman and Wilton (roads)."

The city of Elk Grove assumed jurisdiction over the mall project when it incorporated July 1, 2000.

"There is gridlock," Tomko said. "The overpass doesn't solve it because it's like pouring a pitcher of water into an eyedropper. This is the wrong time for this infrastructure."

"(Highway) 99 is overloaded," resident Dannetta Garcia said. "We need an interchange. Forget about Lent Ranch. Throw Lent Ranch out of the picture. We need an interchange. Period. With or without the mall, we need to move traffic."

Clay Castleberry, Elk Grove public works director, said the proposed interchange is an important project for Elk Grove and the Sacramento County region.

Franklin Souza and Irene Hicks of the SES Hall said the proposed interchange will force a number of major changes on the Portugese Hall on East Stockton Boulevard, including the moving of utilities, trees and driveways.

Sociadade de Espirit Santo -- the Society of the Holy Spirit -- could lose its income, Hicks said, because the hall could be closed for 18 months during interchange construction.

Genelle Treaster of the South County Citizens for Responsible Growth said the group believes "city officials have already decided to approve the Lent Ranch Marketplace proposal, thereby creating an immediate need for the Grant Line Road/SR 99 interchange reconstruction improvements -- a project otherwise not necessary for 10 years or more."

In other business, Elk Grove planning commissioners decided they would try to determine Feb. 15 whether Raley's/Bel Air and Safeway grocery stores can be constructed at Elk Grove Boulevard and Waterman Road in the limited commercial zone as part of the East Elk Grove Specific Plan.

Supermarkets are permitted in limited-commercial zones, but some people are saying the specific plan bans grocery stores at Waterman Road and Elk Grove Boulevard.

Friday, February 2, 2001

Panel Weighs $10 Million for 9 Sound Walls

Transportation: Projects in Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks are expected to get the bulk of the funds.

By CATHERINE BLAKE, Special to The Times

Friday, February 2, 2001

Residents in Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks will likely get relief from the roar of freeway traffic near their homes after a county commission votes today on how to distribute $10 million to build sound walls.

The two east county cities are expected to receive the bulk of the state and federal money because freeway noise is among the worst there, according to noise readings, and because the cities have the money to help pay for the walls. Projects in Ventura, Fillmore and Oxnard will receive about $3.8 million.

The Ventura County Transportation Commission is scheduled to approve nine projects, which were determined by noise level, a city's priority list and ability to contribute 11.5% of the total cost.

If the commission approves the projects, the cities will work with the state Department of Transportation to build the walls, which could be complete in four years.

Simi Valley has the two largest projects, which will take up about half of the $10 million.

"Simi Valley's projects happened to be very expensive, but they are high in population and very noisy because of the freeway," said Carlos Hernandez, the commission's program manager. "We tried to make it equitable by giving everyone who qualified at least one wall."

Rene Churik lives by one of the planned Simi Valley walls, which will run almost a mile between Erringer Road and Sycamore Drive on the Ronald Reagan Freeway.

She said traffic noise is so bad that she and her husband contemplated moving with their three children to another neighborhood.

"I'm thrilled about the wall because our family room faces the freeway and it interrupts our talking," she said. "I can't imagine it being worse anywhere else."

Studies by a consulting firm hired by the Transportation Commission indicate that that stretch of the freeway, with peak-hour noise of 77 decibels, is the noisiest of any area eligible for a sound wall. The wall planned for that area will be 12 feet high, 4,800 feet long and is expected to cut the noise level by 6 decibels.

Tests conducted one day in the last six months determined the noise levels, officials said. An 80-decibel reading equals the noise in a kitchen with a running garbage disposal, officials said, while a 70-decibel reading is like standing 10 feet from a running vacuum cleaner.

To qualify for a share of the $10 million, an area needed a noise level of at least 67 decibels.

The walls, which cost an average of $500 a foot, will be built where residential development was planned before 1988 or where highway improvements have created dramatic increases in traffic noise, officials said.

About 30 stretches of road throughout the county were eligible for sound walls, Hernandez said.

To receive any part of the $10 million, cities need to have completed environmental and design studies within three years and have the matching money ready for construction.

Sound walls not paid for from the $10 million will be eligible for other state and federal grants in two years, but Hernandez said those projects would have to fight competition from other projects, including widening of the Moorpark Freeway and California 118 between Moorpark and Ventura, and the doubling of the Santa Clara River bridge on the Ventura Freeway.

Santa Paula qualified for several sound walls, including a $1.3-million project along California 126 near Peck Road, but the city doesn't have the matching money and will have to wait years for Caltrans to pay for the entire project.

If Santa Paula paid for sound walls, it wouldn't be able to repave its streets, City Manager Norman Wilkinson said.

"There is no way I could give up half of our annual street maintenance budget for that," he said. "I'm confident that there will be other opportunities that will not require matching funds."

Hernandez said the commission staff tried to include every city's top qualifying project.

Camarillo, Ojai and Moorpark each submitted one project, but did not qualify for funding. Port Hueneme, which does not border any major freeway, did not submit any projects.

Areas did not qualify if they were in commercial areas, if the noise level was too low or if the wall would not be effective because of homes sitting on a bluff or hill behind it.

Projects along Moorpark Freeway were not considered because sound wall construction there would be part of a project to widen the road, transportation officials said.

Westbound Ronald Reagan Freeway: 4,800 feet between Erringer Road and Sycamore Drive

Eastbound Ronald Reagan Freeway: 3,860 feet between Galena Avenue and Tapo Canyon Road

Southbound Ventura Freeway: 2,200 feet from Wendy Drive to Borchard Road

Southbound Ventura Freeway: 1,055 feet south of the Lynn Road off-ramp

Northbound Ventura Freeway: 1,300 feet south of the Ventu Park Road off-ramp

Southbound Ventura Freeway: 1,312 feet from Seaward Avenue to Peninsula Street

Eastbound Santa Paula Freeway: 4,950 feet from Kimball Road to Wells Road

Southbound Ventura Freeway: 1,000 feet near Snow Avenue between Vineyard and Rice avenues

Westbound California 126: 580 feet from D Street to C Street

Source: Ventura County Transportation Commission

55/22 connector hits roadblocks

February 2, 2001

Heather Lourie

The construction of a north Orange County interchange is running two months behind schedule in part because of rain delays and unexpectedly large rocks discovered while drilling for pilings.

The interchange where the Costa Mesa (55) and Garden Grove (22) freeways merge is now scheduled to open in March "barring any unforeseen circumstances," said Sandra Friedman, a Caltrans spokeswoman. Part of the delay was due to an asphalt supplier participating in a energy-conservation program and went without power for a week.

Blasting at mouth of Kern River Canyon, road closures finally over

Filed: 02/02/2001

The Bakersfield Californian

Blasting the rock at the mouth of the Kern River Canyon is now complete and, for the most part, motorists will no longer have to contend with eight-hour weekday road closures, Caltrans officials said.

There may be one or two days this month when workers will have to close the canyon for some minor rock removal, Caltrans resident engineer Jack Collins said. Caltrans will put out advisories when those dates are settled.

Workers now expect to finish up the project to widen the mouth of the canyon and realign the road in mid-March, Collins said. Drivers will still face 20-minute delays until the work is complete.

Since Oct. 9, Highway 178 through the canyon has been closed from 8 a.m. to noon and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday while crews blasted away large chunks of the granite walls and hauled the debris away.

Workers will spend the remaining month and a half building a retaining wall and building the new alignment of the road, which will sweep south of the current road to allow a straighter entry into the canyon.

SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE

On-ramp nears turning point

Caltrans wants to remove it from Vista Way, I-5 connection

By Lola Sherman

STAFF WRITER

February 2, 2001

OCEANSIDE -- Most of the time, the state Department of Transportation is busy building new freeway on-and off-ramps.

But every once in a while, Caltrans wants to rip one out.

In this instance, it's the ramp from eastbound Vista Way to northbound Interstate 5. Vista Way becomes state Route 78 at that point.

"Obviously, we're known for constructing freeways, not tearing them down," Caltrans spokesman Steve Saville said yesterday. "It's a little bit out of the ordinary for us."

But Saville said only 600 motorists a day use the Vista Way ramp, and they can create a traffic hazard when they maneuver in a short distance to get to it.

He said Caltrans also could save some money by removing it. Demolition costs are estimated at $109,000, but it would take $350,000 to $500,000 to build a retaining wall needed to protect the ramp once an adjacent freeway ramp is widened.

That ramp handles traffic going from northbound I-5 onto eastbound Route 78, one of the most congested freeway interchanges in the county. During afternoon commutes there, traffic backs up a half-mile on I-5.

Gary Gallegos, Caltrans district director, is expected to seek City Council support for the ramp closure Wednesday.

Saville said that although Caltrans has the final authority, it prefers to work with local governments and get as much public comment as possible.

The most recent ramp closure in San Diego County was on I-15 where the Imperial Avenue interchange was removed because the exits were too close together, Saville said.

In Oceanside, Caltrans removed the Cassidy Street-California Avenue off-ramp from northbound I-5 in 1995.

Some Vista Way residents want the council to go one step further than endorsing the destruction of the ramp. They want the city to block Vista Way west of the interchange so motorists could not access I-5 or Route 78 from the neighborhood street, and drivers could not get onto Vista Way from I-5 or Route 78.

Peter Weiss, city director of public works, explained Caltrans' latest proposal at the first meeting of the new Joint Committee on Transportation Issues this week.

The committee consisting of two City Council members and three members each of the Transportation and Economic Development commissions was formed at the request of Councilwoman Betty Harding.

Harding said at Wednesday's session that traffic "is truly the most critical issue in the city." She said the group should not try to tackle transportation as a whole but focus on priority projects.

The top projects were identified as the I-5 improvements, construction of the Rancho del Oro Road-Route 78 interchange, and the extension of state Route 76 to I-15.

Kevin Stotmeister, newly elected chairman of the committee, asked Weiss to prepare a report for the next meeting, at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, on all the technical and political issues stalling the $34 million Rancho del Oro-Route 78 interchange. It originally was to be completed in 2002, but officials now say it won't be finished until 2005 or later.

Sunday, February 4, 2001

Scenic Route

Caltrans studies the possibilities of a new north-south highway for the Valley to fight congestion.

By Jim Wasserman

The Fresno Bee

(Published February 4, 2001)

In a major indicator of the tremendous growth projected for California, the state Department of Transportation has begun considering a third north-south highway corridor through the San Joaquin Valley -- a route across the citrus groves and scenic pasture land near the Sierra foothills.

Saying it must plan today for tomorrow's traffic in a state expected to reach a population of 49 million by 2025, Caltrans is studying the possibility of a 54-mile highway from Exeter in Tulare County to Highway 152 in Madera County.

The route would stretch existing Highway 65, which runs from Bakersfield to Exeter, far to the north across five Sierra rivers and five state highways. It would pass near towns such as Sanger, Orange Cove, Clovis and Friant.

A new highway or freeway in the front or back yards of these towns could substantially change their complexions. Some residents welcome the economic boost the route would bring. Others are worried that it would pave over their rural lifestyle.

Caltrans' goal, however, would be to provide relief for the huge increases in traffic projected in years ahead on Highway 99. If the new Highway 65 comes to pass, the state will eventually buy thousands of acres of right-of-way for a route that could, in decades ahead, become a long-haul California freeway.

While the highway is not certain, and years away at best, Caltrans will unveil the vision in open houses Monday through Thursday across the three counties in its proposed path. Residents of Woodlake, Madera Ranchos, Friant and Sanger will get their first look from 5 to 7 p.m., respectively, at Woodlake High School, Webster Elementary School, Friant Learning Center and Sanger High School.

Out in the quiet landscapes around communities such as Centerville, Woodlake, Friant and Sanger -- some of them 15 to 25 miles east of Highway 99 -- people such as Sally Campbell and Ruben Mendoza are still getting used to the recent news that east-west Freeway 180 is coming their way within the next decade.

Told about a possible Highway 65, Mendoza, a Centerville storekeeper and lifelong Sanger resident, said, "Never in my life would I expect that."

Campbell, who lives down the road in the Kings River countryside near Minkler, had the same reaction.

"The reality is, we're between Los Angeles and San Francisco and Sacramento," she said. "What are you going to do?"

Caltrans officials remain mum on the big question: When?

"It's just a candidate, and we are just barely beginning the process," said Christine Cox-Kovacevich, Caltrans' chief environmental planner in the region.

Indeed, the required environmental investigations and the narrowing of the highway's projected route to a quarter-mile width won't be done until sometime between 2007 and 2012.

After even more study, the state would pick a specific route within that quarter-mile alignment. Construction would begin years later and in phases, possibly paralleling another major north-south California transportation vision now projected for 2016 — a high-speed rail.

Today, the possibilities for the Highway 65 route are so open-ended that planners are studying a landscape five to 25 miles wide on both sides of the Friant-Kern Canal.

Reaction, meanwhile, ranges from outright support in Orange Cove -- where a new east-side highway is seen as a lifeline to economic development -- to skepticism from Valley transit and clean-air advocates.

Orange Cove is 22 miles east of Highway 99. Orange Cove Mayor Victor Lopez said, "We're excited about it, definitely, because of the fact that Orange Cove and surrounding communities are isolated. If we had the proper four-lane road and can give the companies access, that will really help us in the field of economic development."

On the other hand, Mary Savala, co-chairwoman of the League of Women Voters of Fresno County, said, "I kind of wonder when we're going to make a commitment to a new way of moving people and goods around."

Noting the region's serious air-quality problems, Savala, who favors an emphasis on rail and transit, said, "I question if there's going to be enough money to do it all, and what wins."

Clovis Mayor Harry Armstrong, chairman of Fresno County's sales-tax program to build freeways in the metro area, said Highway 65 would pull commercial traffic off rural roads and make driving safer.

"There's a tremendous amount of packinghouses on the east side with a lot of trucks," he said.

Fresno County Supervisor Judy Case, who represents much of the area where the highway would go, said, "I think there will be a mixed reaction. But it's not something that's been highly discussed." Likewise, in Tulare County, Bob Stocker, assistant executive secretary of the Tulare County Association of Governments, said there's been little discussion. But the association supports planning for it, he said.

The early looks at a new Highway 65 come when California is no longer building new highways or freeways — except freeways 168 and 180 in the Fresno area. If built, Highway 65 would become the third rung of a major north-south highway system through the Valley, linking Bakersfield in Kern County with Marysville in Yuba County.

Presently, Caltrans is studying only the link from Tulare County to Madera County. Yet the long-range goal is to close a 220-mile gap from Exeter to Rocklin, along I-80 northeast of Sacramento.

Caltrans planners say Highway 65 could begin as a two-lane route or a four-lane expressway, then expand to a foothill

freeway. The vision, officials say, is similar to the long-distance I-5 corridor along the Valley's west side with interchanges

every few miles.

But the biggest reason for considering a new state route is Highway 99's increasing congestion.

"If you look at north-south travel on 99 in the Valley, we expect traffic hikes over 20 to 40 years that are going to significantly impact the corridor," said Alan McCuen, Caltrans director for planning in central California.

While Caltrans aims to widen the roadway to six lanes during the next decade and make it a full freeway, the agency believes only an eight-lane freeway will solve the problem beyond that. And that may be environmentally and politically impossible.

"The real issue when we go to eight lanes is there's a lot of disruption to the communities," he said.

McCuen points to such cities as Tulare, Fresno and Madera, where widening would require huge condemnations of private property.

The Caltrans planning chief said trucks already account for 40% of the traffic on some segments of Highway 99, creating convoy-like "platoons" that make the route more dangerous. Caltrans, he said, considers anything above 20% "significant."

LOS ANGELES TIMES

Road Low on Traffic but High on Tales of Death, Mystery

Highways: California 33 is a lure to those seeking solitude--and others wanting to dump bodies.

By MATT SURMAN, Times Staff Writer

Sunday, February 4, 2001

Up in the back country of Ventura County, beyond the mountains on curving California 33, legend had it 100 years ago that this was Satan's stagecoach route to hell.

Only evil people could see Satan on his infernal rides. But good people could sense him in the ghostly whoosh of wind and the goose bumps left behind.

In many ways, the sense of mystery and danger and a touch of evil have only grown with the passing of a century.

This road--scratched from the coast across the mountains above Ojai to the Santa Barbara County line--can get downright spooky.

Step right off the highway and into the woods, and it's not unusual to find folks blasting away at trees, road signs or an abandoned trailer.

Go a little farther and you could stumble across an illegal field of marijuana--thousands of plants have been seized in the past year alone--and find yourself worrying whether the growers might be lurking nearby.

Even worse, it could be a body. This road over what was once the path to hell has become the favorite dumping ground for some of the county's most notorious modern-day killers.

Nichole Hendrix, a 17-year-old allegedly killed by skinhead associates, was one of the victims. Her remains were found in October 1999--nearly six months after her killing--far below a hill offering a pristine view of impenetrable pines.

The body of Kali Manley, an Oak View teenager killed when she took a ride with the wrong man, lay in a culvert beneath the highway for days as cars drove overhead, until her killer, David Alvarez, led authorities to the remains the day after Christmas 1998.

In a campground "back there" in 1994, Andy Lee Anderson and his Australian shepherd lost their lives because a teenager with a shotgun wanted Anderson's shiny blue pickup truck.

And they were only a few of the victims.

Along this road, in the forest that covers the top half of the county, authorities have found seven homicide victims since 1990, four of those not far from the highway. In the decade prior, five bodies were found along the road.

"You can walk 50 feet off a trail and dump a body and chances are it won't be found," Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury said. "I'm sure there are a bunch of bodies we'll never find."

Back there--same as a century ago--things get strange.

In the early 1930s, when California 33 was being built, Ojai, the artist and movie star enclave of 8,000, was a dusty mountain town on the edge of nowhere.

The road was an Indian trail: one the Mojave traversed to enslave the coastal Chumash, one that allowed notorious mountain man Jeff Howard his route to town, one guarded by grizzlies.

"For many years, in many places, there were areas no one had ever seen," local historian Richard Senate said.

It was supposed to be the great connection of commerce between the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California, the first direct route for ranchers who had complained for decades about the one-way, four-day trip on the Old Ridge Route to pay their taxes in San Buenaventura.

What they got was a route etched over a tortuous 46 miles of moonscape in the Cuyama Valley and Lockwood Valley, through the pine-capped mountainsides, to coastal Ventura.

The result, of course, was quite different from the route predicted by county historian Sol N. Sheridan, who envisioned "thousands of cars carrying millions" to the cool coast.

It was called successively Maricopa Road, California 186 and in 1968, finally, California 33.

Planning began in 1890, but it took 40 years before local officials from Santa Barbara, Kern and Ventura counties teamed to secure $1.8 million to chisel into the county's dark western reaches.

In 1929, more than 300 men began grading the path that crosses two mountain ranges and has an average elevation of more than 3,000 feet and reaches as high as about 6,000 feet.

Workers were hurt, a steam shovel tumbled into a creek, but as far as anyone remembers, no one was killed performing the treacherous work, said Bill Friend, a historian who attended the opening day festivities as a small child in 1933.

Even after completion of the road, it was still considered remote: a spot only for hunters and residents making adventure forays into the wilderness.

"Nobody knew how to get back there in the old days," said Joe Reardon, who succeeded his father as the county coroner from 1938 to 1940. "We didn't murder too many of us. . . . If there was a shooting, it was in Camarillo or Oxnard. It was just so darn hard to get up there."

Now, it's easily the least-traveled highway in the county. About 290 vehicles head through the remote back reaches of California 33 during its busiest hour, according to Caltrans. In contrast, 16,100 cars traverse the Ventura Freeway and California 23 interchange in Thousand Oaks during a similar period.

So why would it not be mysterious?

Satan was a dweller here after all, according to Senate.

And this is where, over on the Sespe to the east, Thomas More, a wealthy landowner, was shot in cold blood, prompting newspapers from Santa Barbara to San Francisco to warn of Ventura County barbarism and savagery. This is where Jeff Howard, a mountain man, killed a Basque sheepherder for grazing on his land, and was sent to jail, from which he escaped and became a fugitive.

This is where, Senate said, a sheepherding ghost roams the land, and where Ramon Ortega, a 19th century bear hunter and local legend, traces his last ride every time it rains. This is where, in the hot springs north of Ojai, youngsters drank illegal hooch and listened to hot jazz. And where a bandit hid his $20,000 in gold coins--still not found.

Today, they are long, lonely stretches, punctuated by an occasional trailer on the side of the road, a shot-up street sign, and a spectacular view whichever direction you look.

Indeed, to be up here alone, in the silence, is to be the only person in the world.

Except you aren't.

In the shadowy woods there are marijuana cultivators. Last year was a banner one: The U.S. Forest Service found 18,000 pot plants last summer. That is a lot, said Patrick Kane, a patrolman.

And people live here: some in the campsites, some in cabins. Many are weekend people in from the city, folks who like the cool and quiet of the forest.

But California 33 is also the new hot spot for squatters, county Code Enforcement Officer Liz Cameron said.

Here they may live in the driveway of an owner who never comes up, and has no idea his property has become a roadside motel.

"Some of these places, they might have drug labs. You don't know, and I'm not going to test it," she said. "I want to come back down."

So she calls the Sheriff's Department. That is most likely Deputy Elmo Sheeran around here. Some of the residents of his 860-square-mile patrol territory just call him Sheriff Elmo. His job is mostly to check in on the folks who don't mind being checked in on, to poke his head into the three bars in this vast area, or to admonish snow bunnies for not putting chains on their tires.

He puts it succinctly: "What I have is a dead body or nothing at all."

Some Looking to Escape Government

Sheeran, one of two deputies who patrols nearly half of the county's geography, drives only two paved roads regularly, and sometimes has to guess--carefully--where the dirt ones are under a foot of snow. ("Four years ago they finally put in 911. There was no way to give street addresses," he said) He is a ruddy-faced, just-folks man with a steady look and a slow demeanor, and after five years knows this place better than almost anybody.

He can go hours without seeing a single person. And sometimes the ones he sees don't want to see him.

"Some are trying to get away from government, and we've got to be careful," he said. "You've got a lot of people who come up from L.A. and feel there's no law enforcement. They tend to get a little bit wild."

Sheeran gets called to shot-up campgrounds. (A sign off the Rose Valley campground that states "No Shooting" is pocked with bullet holes.) Hooligans occasionally rip up a picnic table for firewood. Gangbangers and others from the cities down below sometimes leave beer cans and tangles of graffiti in their wake.

Sheeran must remember his backup is hours away. He has to be firm, but careful. He has to deal with groups of people who are often drunk, rowdy, and figure they can do as they want.

"Millions of people, millions of guns. They have to go somewhere to shoot," he said. "That's when it get[s] spooky."

He thinks of this on these kinds of calls: In 1969, four officers were killed in a robbery at a Valencia restaurant. The gunmen had spent the morning practicing their shots at Hungry Valley Campground on the eastern flank of Sheeran's sector.

That is the campground to the east where he was the first law enforcement officer on site to find the badly burned body of Anthony Guest, a 20-year-old man tortured, set on fire and left to decompose under a juniper bush in this windy, dusty stretch popular with off-road cyclists. The maintenance man who found the body took six months off from his job. He never came back.

This is a place where bodies are dumped, but it's also a place where some people come to kill themselves. Some are never found, hidden deep in the woods under snow and branches.

So, Sheeran must notice car tracks, footprints, paw prints.

When he saw a car parked in the same spot for two days, he checked on it. It was a rental car, supposed to be returned days ago. Sheeran found the man a quarter of a mile into the wilderness. He had shot himself.

"Who knows why they come up here?" he asked. "I guess they get despondent and want some solitude."

Solitude, they all say, is the big draw. That and blazing down the highway on a souped-up bike.

"Basically, it's just the road. Motorcycle people love the road," said Tom Wolf, the mild, plain-spoken owner of the Pine Mountain Inn, otherwise known as Wolf's Grill.

It's open sporadically. But you don't know until you go, because there is no phone and no Southern California Edison. It's all solar-powered.

Wolf's place, it's almost universally agreed, is really weird, a legend in itself. Part zoo: there are emus and dogs. Part shooting range: some guys from the Navy bases helped put it together. It's all rough, in Wolf's own estimation. Rough decor: carved-up wood, a prominent NRA sticker, dollar bills taped across the ceiling (when El Niño nearly did business in, he collected the bills and used them: $4,200).

And a rough crowd too: He caters to bikers by night.

"When I bought the place, I'd never been around cycles. It kind of grew that way," he said. "The first party, I was thinking, 'How many guns should I have here?' "

They come in all types. There are locals who will paint a wall for a six-pack. There is a notorious Ojai ruffian whom Wolf sometimes lets tend bar, but doesn't trust too much. There is Mike--just Mike--who lives somewhere back in the woods, and who might be a hermit, but to Wolf is simply "funny and fat, and just doesn't need people."

But, hardest of all, the wives with fliers: Their husbands went out for a hike, or a bike ride, somewhere in Los Padres National Forest, they don't know where, and they never came back.

He posts the fliers, but can't count on anything. There are so many places to go off the road or get lost. It's dotted along its stretch with an occasional cross guarded by trinkets--a harmonica, a bottle of Jack Daniels: the totems a bike victim once loved.

There are many, many more accidents. Only eight fatalities, they say since 1995, according to the California Highway Patrol, though that seems low to some up here. And 130 injuries.

"There are an awful lot injured and we can't do anything for them," Wolf said.

Last year an Ojai woman Karen Palmer knew went over in her car, and lay there for days before anyone found her.

"Did that woman die lying in that car for a week?" Palmer asked. "That gives me the shakes just thinking about it."

Remoteness and Body-Dumping

At the Half Way Station--that is, halfway between Ojai and Taft, down the northern slope from Pine Mountain--bartender Rob Wheeler, a friendly, skinny character with an ever-present cigarette between his lips and a bear claw on a chain around his neck, holds court on the subject of the back country: on tourism, remoteness, and the phenomenon of body-dumping.

He likes tourists, and wants more. He doesn't mind remoteness. Body-dumping is indisputably not a good thing.

It's "kill 'em in Ventura and dump 'em up here, and we don't appreciate it," he said. "We don't need the bad reverberations. Dead bodies on the summit isn't a selling point."

Business has been slow at the Half Way. Construction on 33, Wheeler believes, is discouraging tourists. But on a Tuesday afternoon there are a handful of folks, a regular, a couple of Ojai strangers, at the bar. All gathered in this rustic cabin festooned with bumper stickers, at least one guaranteed to offend, and mushroom clusters of baseball caps across the ceiling. And on Mondays--spaghetti dinner night--the locals come out to the de facto Ozena Valley community center.

They accept the mail for folks who live up on the dirt roads. They will happily lend a place to stay on the couch to a tourist who gets stranded. It's practically the ever-present Bud Dalton's living room. He is a bear-shooting old-timer who sips a Pepsi at the bar and doesn't tend to share much other than a chuckle at the John Wayne movie on the satellite TV.

But the most crime they have seen is a couple teenagers from Ventura stealing beer from the back room, and a missing motorbike that later was returned.

"Everybody has a gun up here. We're not worried about crime," Wheeler said. And there have only been three or four fights at the bar in its 12-year history--and just one broken window (following an incident with a wayward elbow).

So far into this week, only three visitors have signed the guest register. That is the way some like it.

Says Harry Gramig, who spends his week as a Culver City salesman, but prefers life in Lockwood Valley, just down the--very steep--road from Pine Mountain: "Out here you can leave your keys in the car."

He leases a big chunk of land--it's cheap, and plentiful and is the canvas for sunsets that look like Remingtons.

"There's mountain lions, bobcats, and not a lot of people," said Judy Gramig, his wife.

It's a little bit lawless, they say. No one minds if you carry your gun in a holster on your hip, as he and Judy do. Unless there is something really wrong, the deputy leaves the folks who live here alone. Even some of the pot farmers are good neighbors.

"I know the people who grew it," he said of the targets of a recent bust. "They're nice people."

The district attorney, an avid booster of the back country, has stumbled across the remains of a pot farm, but he has also stumbled across an awesome ancient Indian site. But he won't say where.

Bradbury knows there will be more findings. More pot. And more bodies. That is because there is more law enforcement. But mostly, there are more hikers, more campers, more nature lovers to stumble across the nefarious doings in the backwoods. This remote, mysterious place--just miles away--is becoming less remote, if no less stunning.

"It's going to be spotted more readily," Bradbury said. "But, my guess is there's still a lot more we'll never find."

SACRAMENTO BEE

Running the gantlet: Planners carefully steer a path to unclog Hazel

By Mary Lynne Vellinga

Bee Staff Writer

(Published Feb. 4, 2001)

When George Thompson moved to Hazel Avenue 60 years ago, it was a two-lane country road that didn't cross the American River.

Thompson's first house was leveled in the mid-1960s to make way for three more lanes. Thompson, now 85, built himself another house farther back on his two-acre property.

Today, thousands of commuters cross the American River on Hazel Avenue each day and roar by Thompson's front door. The county is looking at widening the road again.

"The traffic is terrible," Thompson said. "It's just a continual line of cars going by with one person."

Looking for someone to blame, Thompson settles on the people who three decades ago helped kill plans for a crosstown freeway [Route 143] that would have connected Highway 50 and Interstate 80.

"They didn't want any more concrete roads," Thompson said. "I hope those people are happy now that they have to wait in line to get on Hazel."

Forty years ago, state transportation officials envisioned a web of new freeways in the Sacramento region, including the Highway 50 to Interstate 80 link. The grand building scheme died amid the growing environmental movement of the 1970s. The rights of way were sold off.

But the cars kept coming.

Bit by bit, the major surface streets that cross the American River and connect Highway 50 and Interstate 80 -- Watt Avenue, Sunrise Boulevard and Hazel Avenue -- emerged as de facto freeways used by thousands of commuters and large commercial trucks.

Nobody is satisfied with this situation. Commuters get backed up at traffic lights and on freeway exits. Residents of Sacramento's eastern suburbs have revolted against the traffic rumbling through their neighborhoods.

Watt, Sunrise and Hazel are "maxed out," said Martin Tuttle, executive director of the Sacramento Area Council of Governments.

Each day about 90,929 vehicles cross the Sunrise Boulevard bridge, which was designed to accommodate less than half that number. On the Watt Avenue bridge, 95,738 vehicles crowd each day onto a road designed for 30,000. The overload on Hazel is not quite as bad, but it's getting worse each year.

"If you look at the freeway system, and you look at 80 and 50, we don't have a north-south freeway to connect them," said Tom Zlotkowski, director of the county's transportation division. "These surface routes are acting as a substitute for those through trips."

Solutions remain elusive. One idea floated recently is to build a traffic tunnel to run underneath Sunrise or Hazel between Interstate 80 and Highway 50. But this project would be costly -- some experts estimate as much as $1 billion -- and would doubtless spark controversy.

Meanwhile, residents of the neighborhoods bordering these streets have made it clear they've had enough. People living near Watt waged a protracted legal battle to keep that road from being widened to six lanes.

They had mixed success. Most of Watt has been expanded to six lanes, and work is underway to widen the Watt Avenue bridge. But community residents in January persuaded the county Board of Supervisors to keep the street at four lanes between Fair Oaks Boulevard and Arden Way.

With the Watt Avenue bridge under construction, and Sunrise Boulevard already widened to six lanes in most places, the county is eyeing the possibility of adding two more lanes to Hazel. Like Watt and Sunrise, Hazel is designated a six-lane thoroughfare in the county's 1994 general plan.

"Hazel is the only one that has not been built out to its general plan designation," Zlotkowski said.

But the county, bruised from its Watt Avenue experience, is proceeding cautiously. It has set up an advisory committee with residents, business owners, commuters and transit advocates to try to reach a solution acceptable to everyone.

More buses might help, Zlotkowski said, or a car-pool lane. Streetlights could be better coordinated, and lanes could be switched from one direction to another to accommodate the morning and evening commute. The county could exercise its right to eliminate many of the private driveways along Hazel and make it "more of an expressway."

Even if widened to six lanes, Hazel would not suddenly emerge a commuter's dream. A six-lane road is designed to handle about 45,000 vehicles a day. But the number using Hazel already approaches 50,000 in some spots and is expected to rise to 62,770 by 2022.

"We could put in six lanes, and the latent demand would fill it immediately," said Jim Baetge, who has lived on Barrhill Way, just off Hazel, for 18 years. Baetge, former executive director of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, is on the committee looking at Hazel's future.

As long as development continues, Baetge and others said, the situation is likely to get worse. And the pace of development shows no signs of slowing.

From Highway 50, Hazel Avenue slices through portions of the unincorporated county that retain a country feel, but whose character is changing because of "in-fill" commercial and residential projects that some residents complain are out of character with their community and add to congestion.

A gated community tightly packed with stucco giants looms to the right, just past the Hazel Avenue river crossing. A few blocks north, orange signs plaster backyard fences, protesting a Safeway planned for the corner of Hazel and Madison avenues, on vacant land zoned for half-acre lots.

"If there's nothing on the land, it's under attack," said Mike Smith, a Barrhill Way resident who opposes the proposed shopping center, which would border the back yards on his street.

Continuing north, Hazel bisects the horse pastures of Orangevale and passes several mega-sized churches either newly built or under construction.

When the road hits the Placer County line, the level of development intensifies. Hazel Avenue becomes Sierra College Boulevard, a curving road that offers stunning foothill vistas and stretches through the booming communities of Granite Bay, Roseville and Rocklin. Both sides of the road sport a crop of new subdivisions.

"In '94 that was all pasture," Baetge said.

Sierra College Boulevard -- now being widened in some spots -- also serves residents of the new Sun City in Lincoln. And it would be the primary road for the proposed Bickford Ranch development, a controversial project that would add nearly 2,000 homes in unincorporated Placer County near Penryn.

"Placer County is a big part of the problem," said David Mogavero, a midtown Sacramento architect who serves as president of the Environmental Council of Sacramento.

Mogavero, who advocates concentrating development along transit lines in existing neighborhoods, said the only way to deal with traffic on Hazel and other crosstown streets is to spend more money on public transit and stop allowing development on "greenfields" at the fringe of the urban area.

"The underlying problem is that the county has approved thousands of acres of suburban sprawl in the last 30 years, and has only accommodated automobile transportation systems," Mogavero said.

Robert Johnston, a professor of environmental science and policy at the University of California, Davis, said communities such as Sacramento should be weaned from their car-dependent lifestyles now, rather than putting off the inevitable.

"When you widen roads, you're inducing travel, so the roads will tend to fill up faster than your projections. That's been the experience all over the country," Johnston said. "The question to me is very simple: Do we want to widen the freeways and the arterial streets now, which delays the day when the transit system is going to work well, or do we want to put most of the money into transit systems, which will then work sooner."

Sacramento Regional Transit has begun looking at where to concentrate its efforts when it finishes the light-rail extensions now in the works. Spokesman Mike Wiley said RT is considering whether to significantly beef up bus service on roads such as Watt and Sunrise. Steps could range from giving buses a head start when lights change to setting aside dedicated bus lanes. Hazel thus far has not been designated a priority.

But government officials charged with planning the transportation network said improved public transit cannot by itself alleviate the traffic problems on Sacramento's main surface streets. Commercial truckers, for instance, can't carry their loads on light rail.

A roundtable of community leaders convened by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments has floated the idea of several major expansions of Sacramento's road network. The roundtable was set up to help SACOG, the region's transportation planning agency, update the area's transportation plan.

Ideas discussed include the tunnel between Highway 50 and Interstate 80, and a system of parkways connecting Highway 99, Interstate 5, Highway 50 and Highway 65 that would include a new bridge over the American River at Oak Avenue.

Tuttle, SACOG's executive director, said the region should act quickly to acquire rights of way through territory that is still relatively rural. One of his agency's priorities is the Placer Parkway, which would link Highway 65 in Placer County to Highway 99 and 70 near Sacramento International Airport.

"Given the fact that we're going to grow by a million people over the next 20 years, and given our limited road network now, we have to exhaust every option and then some," Tuttle said.

Monday, February 5, 2001

Dicey Dance: The 55/22

The nearly 2-year-old freeway improvement project makes the junction a maze, sometimes a dangerous one, which tests the patience of drivers and officials in Orange.

By MONTE MORIN, Times Staff Writer

Monday, February 5, 2001

When it comes to unclogging the notoriously jammed confluence of the Costa Mesa and Garden Grove freeways, commuters such as Rob Silva complain that the cure is worse than gridlock itself.

Every day for almost two years, Silva and more than 100,000 other drivers have negotiated an obstacle course of construction barriers, crash barrels, detours, road closures and narrowed lanes that resemble concrete cattle chutes.

The work is part of a larger $118-million mission to improve flow on the Costa Mesa Freeway. The deadline for work on the one interchange is June. The Caltrans prediction for finishing it early, by last November, has been changed twice, now to March.

"Instead of being super early, we're just going to be a little early," Caltrans spokeswoman Sandra Friedman said.

Still, the project's duration has irked drivers such as Silva, who can hit delays of up to 30 minutes in the mess. And local officials say the detours have put a heavy strain on roads.

Critics say Caltrans might have blundered by not including a cash incentive for the contractor to finish earlier. Caltrans officials say the delays are due to a series of circumstances beyond their control.

But the conditions that make for hazardous driving continue, said Silva, especially on the narrow ramp connecting the southbound Costa Mesa and westbound Garden Grove freeways.

"Dude, it's ludicrous dangerous," said Silva, a daily interchange commuter and manager of Sid's Tattoo Parlor, one of many businesses bordering it. "People are speeding from the 55 to get to the 22 and suddenly they're slamming on their brakes. The lanes are too narrow and everybody slows to a stop. Our customers are complaining about it all the time. It just stinks."

Others complain about the 16-month closure of the ramp connecting the northbound Costa Mesa and the westbound Garden Grove. The detour route along 17th Street and Tustin Avenue is frequently congested, which some say has led to collisions involving drivers who make U-turns or other maneuvers to escape the crush.

"It's been a hassle," said Rhonda Thaut, an employee of World of Wigs, on 17th Street. "It's been a long time and we've seen a lot of accidents. There's probably one a week."

Payment incentives to finish early were used for parts of the massive Santa Ana Freeway expansion, and for the Red Hill Avenue bridge replacement project in Costa Mesa. That span, which crosses the San Diego Freeway, was demolished and reconstructed in nine months.

Incentives increase the cost of a contract, which Caltrans officials say they were reluctant to do in this latest project.

"When you put too many restrictions on a contract, it jacks up the price," said Hamid Bahadori, an engineer for the city of Orange, where the interchange work is being done.

While there have been significant effects on his city, Bahadori said the work is needed.

"Obviously, we're anxious to see the freeway improvements done as soon as possible," he said. "They've created delays at intersections that are not designed to handle this excess traffic."

Caltrans officials say a series of natural and man-made circumstances have caused the delays: the state's electricity crisis, which stymied production of paving asphalt; unusually rocky terrain that slowed installation of support pilings; and rain.

The contractor, Brutoco Engineering and Construction of Fontana, would not comment on the project.

The interchange is one of four construction zones in the 55 North Improvement project, a six-mile stretch of the Costa Mesa Freeway between the Garden Grove and Riverside freeways. Overall, the project will add one new traffic lane in each direction and widen existing lanes.

Improvements being made at the Costa Mesa-Garden Grove interchange will cost roughly $20.5 million and are intended to keep drivers from weaving in and out of lanes in an attempt to exit or connect to ramps.

The eastbound interchange had been regarded as one of the county's worst, with traffic often slowing to 25 mph or less at rush hour. The improved ramps should allow drivers to cruise through at 55 to 60 mph, according to Mahir Osman, a Caltrans engineer.

Among other changes, Caltrans is building a two-lane underpass connecting the northbound Costa Mesa Freeway to the westbound Garden Grove Freeway, a connection that has been closed for more than a year.

Caltrans has also built a separate northbound Chapman Avenue offramp to whisk motorists away from through traffic and deposit them on Chapman without forcing them to jockey for position.

"These sort of improvements go far beyond what are basic requirements," said Osman, who bristles at suggestions that the project is not moving fast enough.

"When we are finished, there will be no delays whatsoever. It will be a much more comfortable ride and there will be less weaving. The improvements we're making here are so good that I'm going to drive this interchange even if I don't have to."

While commuters and others may question whether the project has taken too long, Caltrans officials say the widening of the Costa Mesa Freeway required major changes to existing ramps. Contract incentives are not needed, they said.

"If you throw money at a contractor and demand the same quality work that you would demand on any project, then you're making a compromise," Osman said. "Besides, the contractor has all the incentive he needs to finish early: It reduces his overhead."

Osman added that if the contractor doesn't meet the June deadline, the penalty is $1,200 a day.

In the end, Caltrans officials say, criticism of projects such as this one stems from drivers wanting, impossibly, the best of both worlds.

"This happens an awful lot," Friedman said. "People say they don't want traffic congestion, but then again they don't want the construction. What are we going to do?"

Tuesday, February 6, 2001

SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS

Decision time for plan to widen Highway 101

Published Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2001

San Jose Mercury News

BY GARY RICHARDS

Mercury News Staff Columnist

This is the week of decision for Highway 101 commuters.

Santa Clara County supervisors today are expected to endorse widening the freeway to eight lanes between Morgan Hill and San Jose. The Valley Transportation Authority is expected to follow with an endorsement at its Thursday meeting.

The 1996 sales tax called for widening the freeway from two to three lanes in each direction. But traffic officials say they can add carpool lanes for an extra $16 million, mere pennies these days.

In addition, they would build a special carpool-to-carpool ramp from 101 to Highway 85, allowing carpoolers to move from one freeway to another without having to merge through three lanes of solo drivers.

VTA officials and county supervisors have feared that some environmental groups might sue to block the widening, but so far no legal action has been taken. Environmental documents have been filed, and no group voiced opposition during that process.

Backers of a wider highway point out that while $71 million will be spent on widening 101, more than $135 million is earmarked for Caltrain improvements to Gilroy and beyond.

Weary commuters know what they want.

``A lot of us -- and I do mean a lot -- are doing our part in lessening congestion by carpooling already, without the benefit of a carpool lane,'' said Penny Garibay of Hollister. ``If we were to have a carpool lane, those of us who are doing what we can to help with extra vehicles on the road would have at least some compensation for our efforts.''

If no lawsuit is filed, construction is set to begin this summer.

Lafayette Street: Santa Clara will close this street from 11 p.m. today to 6 a.m. Wednesday to finish repairs, as well as from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.

Great Mall Parkway: Road crews have begun to widen the median here as part of building the light rail into East San Jose. One of two left-turn lanes at McCandless-Fairlane Drive in Milpitas will be closed for six months.

Vision for Fwy. 41 project will be unveiled Thursday

By Jim Wasserman

The Fresno Bee

(Published February 6, 2001)

The California Department of Transportation, which plans an $11.8 million lane-widening project to relieve growing traffic congestion at Freeway 41's Friant Road exit, will unveil the concept Thursday from 4 to 8 p.m at the Pinedale Elementary School cafeteria.

Caltrans officials hope to begin construction on a pair of new Freeway 41 lanes north of Herndon Avenue in 2004 or 2005.

The agency envisions a new northbound left lane beginning at the El Paso Avenue undercrossing to Audubon Drive to carry Madera County traffic through the Friant interchange. Likewise, plans call for another right lane north of Herndon Avenue to steer traffic into the off-ramp to Friant Road. Finally, Caltrans also will add two new lanes near the bottom of the Friant offramp to make it faster for commuters.

"Obviously, we expect that traffic backing up on the main line to be reduced significantly," said Alan McCuen, Caltrans deputy district director for planning and programming.

Frequently, lines of cars stack up during the evening commute waiting to exit Freeway 41 to Friant Road.

The project is a year ahead of schedule, following a $10 million congestion-relief grant last year from Gov. Davis.

Presently, the agency aims to finish analyzing environmental effects of the widening project by July 2002.

"This is is our first opportunity to get public input on this as we initiate our environmental process," McCuen said. "There will be more public meetings as we proceed."

Pinedale Elementary School is at 7171 Sugar Pine Ave.

Glendale may advance freeway project

By Jennifer Hamm

Staff Writer

Tuesday, February 6, 2001

The City Council tonight will consider hiring a project manager and design team for a $33 million freeway interchange renovation project.

But continued opposition is expected from a group of residents who worry that improvement at the Ventura Freeway-San Fernando Road interchange will be bad for the neighborhood.

"Their concern is about noise and visual impacts," said Jano Baghdanian, traffic and transportation administrator for the city of Glendale.

City officials contend they have a plan to mitigate those problems during construction.

Jolene Taylor, who lives near the interchange, said that plan is insufficient and hopes to have several dozen of her neighbors at the council meeting to speak out against it.

"They want to bring more noise, traffic and pollution to our neighborhood, and they don't want to do a thing about it," said Taylor. "It's unacceptable."

Taylor said the city has ignored her questions and concerns about the project.

Mayor Dave Weaver said he understands residents have concerns, but that the city has gone overboard in an effort to address them. Weaver said it will take new, clear evidence that the project could be harmful to diminish his support.

The project is one of four major interchanges that will get a face lift in coming years as part of the city's effort to rejuvenate the industrial area along San Fernando Road.

Plans call for on- and off-ramps at the interchange to be widened, and for Fairmont Avenue to be widened and a bridge constructed.

Staff members have recommended to the council that they hire URS Corporation Americas to design the project and Carter & Burgess Inc. to manage it.

The California Department of Transportation is footing the bill for all four interchange projects. The city, working with Burbank, began the projects after a 1992 report said 1.3 million square feet of commercial development and 3.7 million square feet of business park, office and industrial development -- and attendant traffic -- could be expected in coming years.

If the city approves the recommendations, it will take a year to design the project. Construction is slated for completion by the end of 2003.

Highway 111 traffic lights will be in sync by fall

Staff reports

The Desert Sun

February 6th, 2001

In September, The Desert Sun reported that the stop lights along Highway 111 would be synchronized across the valley by April 2001. Is that plan still on track?

By the end of the summer, motorists will be able to shift into cruise control and travel at a steady pace along Highway 111.

That’s when traffic lights should be talking to each other in time with the traffic flow.

Just as tourist season resumes, more than 90 traffic lights on Highway 111 between Palm Springs and Coachella will be synchronized, said Allyn Waggle, associate director of transportation for the Coachella Valley Association of Governments.

Some motorists, however, may not notice.

"It won’t happen with a single event," Waggle said.

Right now, crews are finishing up the hard wiring and cable installation necessary to get the lights to talk to each other.

Then, timing sequences will be entered into computers located inside traffic boxes the intersections.

After that, technicians will need to do some testing and tweaking to streamline traffic flow.

The $1.8 million project, once completed, will ultimately be compatible with a regional system that has been designed but has yet to be built.

The new system will include three traffic centers —— one each in the west valley, mid-valley and east valley.

Highway 9 lane opening nears

By JONDI GUMZ

Sentinel staff writer

February 6, 2001

FELTON -If good weather continues, construction crews hope to have one lane of Highway 9 open to motorists Friday.

"That’s what we’re aiming for," said Tom Borbe of Parnum Paving, which started the job in mid-August.

The company has a $1.4 million contract with Caltrans to repair slide damage that occurred three years ago. The section under repair, a quarter-mile stretch between Felton and Santa Cruz, has forced about 5,000 motorists a day to detour to Graham Hill Road or Highway 17.

Caltrans officials predict both lanes will be open by the end of April.

The work is two months behind schedule, partly because of rainy weather but mostly because of underground conditions that hampered construction of a new retaining wall.

The wall required placing 21 beams, each weighing 9,500 pounds, in the ground to support the road. Workers expected to pour about 20 sacks of cement to hold them in place, but in actuality much more was needed. In a couple of spots, more than 1,000 bags were poured.

"That’s what has taken so long," Borbe said.

Crane operator Bob Ford used a retractable measuring tape to illustrate the problem. He stuck one end into a tiny crack in a group of rocks at the side of the road. The tape went in for 5 feet.

Construction workers said the problems could increase the cost of the job, but Caltrans spokeswoman Jenny Linzner said she didn’t have information on added costs.

The repairs began later than scheduled because Felton merchants lobbied Caltrans to start the repairs in August instead of May so they wouldn’t lose the summer tourist season.

Meanwhile, the recent spring-like weather and the absence of traffic has made Highway 9 attractive to bicyclists.

"With this nice weather, we’ve seen a lot of them," Ford said as a trio from Bonny Doon passed by on its way to the Pogonip in Santa Cruz.

SCAG report drops truck lanes by creek

Alternative removed from Pomona Freeway study

By Rodney Tanaka

Staff Writer

Tuesday, February 06, 2001

A report studying dedicated truck lanes on the Pomona (60) Freeway will not include an alternative posed by Hacienda Heights residents because of pressure from surrounding cities.

The Southern California Association of Governments' regional transportation plan shows dedicated truck lanes on the 60 Freeway are possible under certain conditions.

The study looked at a combination of widening the freeway at some locations and adding lanes above the freeway grade at other points, including a stretch from the San Gabriel River (605) Freeway to Fullerton Road in Rowland Heights.

Some Hacienda Heights residents asked SCAG to study an alternative building truck lanes along San Jose Creek, which branches off from the San Gabriel River and flows between Valley Boulevard and the 60 Freeway to Pomona.

Walnut and Diamond Bar officials asked that specific reference to studying the San Jose Creek option be removed from SCAG's report.

"This was a final report on the feasibility study, not an engineering plan," SCAG spokesman Jeff Lustgarten said Monday. "We're not breaking ground on this tomorrow. There was no affirmative decision by the regional council to exclude it from future discussion, but specific mention was taken out."

SCAG's regional council removed specific mention of San Jose Creek in its study last week, which means there's less of a chance it will be studied down the road, Lustgarten said. The next stage is trying to secure funding for more planning, engineering and environmental analysis, he said.

"Specifically mentioning the San Jose Creek alternative gave it extra focus in the study," said Diamond Bar Mayor Bob Huff. "We see some significant problems with that alignment."

Hacienda Heights resident Barbara Fish said the creek alternative may not work, but it should be studied to determine its merits. SCAG and the California Department of Transportation must look at alternatives when studying truck lanes, she said.

"As far as I'm concerned, these cities can try to fight this all they want to," Fish said. "Caltrans will call the shots. They will not get by Hacienda Heights on that freeway without looking at a feasible alternative. They think it's going away, but that is yet to be seen."

Walnut Mayor June Wentworth said the San Jose Creek alternative would impact her city with noise, pollution and displacement of homes.

"There are other options they could look at other than trying to create another freeway," Wentworth said. "It's a waste of the government's time and money to try to get money to study it without knowing if it's feasible."

A freeway along the creek would likely take out a lot of homes and might set a precedent of running transportation corridors along washes and rivers, Huff said.

"(The alternative) takes away the impact from their community by shifting it on the backs of Diamond Bar, Walnut, La Puente and Industry," Huff said. "To reduce impacts to one community by negatively impacting four or five communities doesn't make a lot of sense."

Thursday, February 8, 2001

SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE

Oceanside seeks public input on I-5 on-ramp

Caltrans wants it closed because few drivers use it

By Lola Sherman

UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

February 8, 2001

OCEANSIDE -- The City Council isn't ready to approve eliminating an on-ramp at one of Interstate 5's busiest interchanges. Instead, the council wants to hold a community meeting on the subject.

After 90 minutes of discussion with Gary Gallegos, regional director for the state Department of Transportation, the council last night voted unanimously for a forum on closing the on-ramp from eastbound Vista Way and state Route 78 to northbound I-5.

The council heard from residents on both sides of the proposal. Most said they worried that closing the ramp would send traffic to residential streets leading to the next-closest I-5 entry, at Cassidy Street.

Caltrans intends to spend $4 million widening the off-ramp from northbound I-5 to eastbound 78, an interchange that backs up along I-5 for half a mile during commuting hours.

However, to avoid the environmentally sensitive Buena Vista Lagoon, the addition must be placed on the north side of the ramp. That would put it close to the Vista Way on-ramp to northbound I-5, creating the need for a retaining wall separating the two traffic ways.

Because only 600 cars a day use the Vista Way on-ramp, Caltrans believes the best solution is to close it.

Besides, Caltrans says, the few cars that use the on-ramp endanger others as they maneuver to cross eastbound lanes of Vista Way to reach the ramp.

Gallegos said that the proposed closing would be an interim measure, and that the real solution would be a full freeway interchange. But even that won't work, he said, as long as I-5 and Route 78 are at capacity, as is the case.

Caltrans usually adds rather than removes off-ramps. This would be its second such move in the same area in the past decade.

Six years ago, the off-ramp from northbound I-5 to Cassidy Street was closed as a safety measure so exiting cars would no longer cut in front of those entering the freeway from Route 78.

SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE

Poway resisting SANDAG ideas for Route 125

Improve Route 67, city leaders urge

By Brian E. Clark

UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

February 8, 2001

POWAY -- The idea of extending state Route 125 north from Santee into Poway to relieve traffic congestion on Interstate 15 makes City Councilwoman Betty Rexford see red.

"Unfortunately, it seems like a lot of people are blaming us for the worsening congestion on I-15," Rexford said at Tuesday night's City Council meeting.

Rexford serves on a San Diego Association of Governments subcommittee studying the Route 125 and Route 67 transportation corridor. Several proposals under consideration would build a four-lane extension of Route 125 through Poway, connecting it with Interstate 15.

Currently, Route 125 stops at Route 52 in Santee. Route 67 runs north from El Cajon to Ramona through the eastern edge of Poway, and is often congested with rush-hour traffic.

One SANDAG option calls for extending Route 125 north from Santee to Scripps Poway Parkway. It would run along the east side of the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station.

"After that it would go through the pristine habitat of Goodan Ranch and the Sycamore Canyon Open Space preserves," Rexford said. "Can you imagine that?"

Another possible route would incorporate Pomerado Road, from near Scripps Poway Parkway north to Interstate 15 in Rancho Bernardo, as part of Route 125. With that option, Route 125 would also pass through Miramar just east of I-15, something Rexford said the Marine Corps has resisted.

A third possibility calls for the highway to run through the east side of Poway, incorporating Espola Road in the Old Coach area as part of the route.

"That would have it taking out million-dollar homes and a golf course," Rexford said.

"A much better use of transportation funds is to improve Highway 67 and make it four lanes to carry traffic north from Interstate 8 to the Ramona area. We also have to figure out ways to get people out of their cars and into public transportation."

Rexford was joined by other council members who blasted SANDAG's plans to bisect Poway with a major highway.

"It's a horrible idea," said council member Don Higginson, who served on the SANDAG transportation committee until last year. He said he tried to get the panel to delete the state Route 125 option, but was unsuccessful.

"It was Poway's position when I was on that committee that extending 125 should be dropped and that they should focus on widening Highway 67," he said. "But they don't listen."

Deputy Mayor Jay Goldby, who presided over Tuesday's meeting in the absence of Mayor Mickey Cafagna, said he, too, is opposed to any extension of Route 125 through Poway.

"But if we don't want it run through here, we must come up with a viable alternative that is defensible and makes regional sense," he said.

Goldby said he believes San Diego County needs a third major north-south interstate, and that the best candidate for that is Route 67.

Rexford said other members of the transportation subcommittee resent Poway because it deleted Route 125 from its community planning maps when it incorporated in 1980.

In 1975, Route 125 was included in SANDAG's first regional transportation plan. It was envisioned as a major freeway extending north and west from Route 52 to Interstate 15.

"The city of San Diego is still mad," she said. "They want us to take their traffic because of the gridlock on I-15, but extending Highway 125 through Poway really wouldn't provide that much relief."

Rexford defended her city's record, noting that Poway's construction of Scripps Poway Parkway in 1997 helped relieve congestion between Interstate 15 and Route 67.

She said that the road was meant to be an expressway. But she said traffic is often backed up at stoplights because San Diego permitted construction of numerous subdivisions along the route.

BAKERSFIELD CALIFORNIAN

Residents steer roadway plans

Filed: 02/08/2001

By KERRY CAVANAUGH

Californian staff writer

e-mail: kcavanaugh@bakersfield.com

With pens and paper in hand Wednesday night, Bakersfield residents were able to pick apart the 20 potential transportation systems for the metropolitan area.

And they did pick.

"All of (the proposals) have pieces you could agree with," said Richard Watkins, who turned out for the open house to view the roadway options.

The open house was another step in the Bakersfield System Study, a $1.9 million study commissioned by the Kern Council of Governments to assess road projects that could relieve congestion and improve crosstown traffic movement.

Wednesday night was the first time residents could comment on 21 system proposals, one of which offered no changes to the current system.

Many projects that appeared on maps had been studied before, such as the Kern River Freeway, the South Beltway and the Hageman flyover.

But this was the first time those projects were displayed as components in the larger transportation system, said Jeff Chapman, project engineer with URS Greiner Woodward Clyde, the firm conducting the study.

In the coming weeks, the consultants will collect additional comments, look over the suggestions and narrow down the alternatives.

Comments, costs, traffic effectiveness and community impact will be factors in the screening process.

After another public hearing in the spring, the consultants will take packages of proposed improvements to the Bakersfield City Council and Board of Supervisors for comment before Kern COG makes the final decision.

Most open house attendees could cross off proposals they didn't like for reasons such as too near their homes, too close to the river or too intrusive to a neighborhood.

Watkins, for example, liked the idea of a South Beltway to carry truck traffic around the city. He disliked the Kern River Freeway for its potential impacts on the river. But he still saw the need for improvements for in-town traffic.

Jim Knapp, a real estate agent with Watson Realty, was surprised to see the reappearance of the Westpark Corridor, a roadway that would head from the Kern River southeast through a residential area to Highway 58.

"I thought that was put down years ago," Knapp said. But he saw potential for the Centennial Corridor.

More than half of the proposals include some incarnation of the Kern River Freeway alignment.

Most proposals mix and match corridors, or areas that would be emphasized as travelways. The end result could be any one of the displayed proposals, or it could be a combination of bits and pieces from various proposals.

The Centennial Corridor would travel east from Highway 99 between California Avenue and Truxtun Avenue.

Highway 204 Corridor would carry traffic from Highway 99 south along Union Avenue to Highway 58.

Landco Drive Corridor would carry traffic from the Kern River Freeway alignment, or Rosedale Highway, north along Landco Drive to Highway 99.

23rd/24th Street Corridor would carry traffic to Highway 178.

California Avenue Corridor would carry traffic from Highway 99 to Union Avenue along California Avenue.

Highway 99 Parallel Corridor would carry traffic east of Highway 99 along Oak Street to hook up with Highway 58.

Highway 58 Extension Corridor would connect Highway 58 with the Kern River Freeway alignment, crossing through the Westpark area.

Lakeview Corridor would carry traffic on Cottonwood Road to Highway 58.

178 Direct Connection would carry traffic from the Centennial Corridor to Highway 178 via Alta Vista Drive.

Stockdale Highway Alignment would carry traffic via Stockdale Highway to Highway 99.

Rosedale Highway Corridor would travel just north of Rosedale Highway and connect with 24th Street.

7th Standard Road Corridor would carry traffic to Highway 99.

Northeast Beltway would head from 7th Standard Road to China Grade Loop to eventually hit Highway 178 and Highway 58 at Comanche Drive.

South Beltway would change depending on the city or county alignment, but it generally connects Interstate 5 to Highway 59 via Taft Highway.

A full beltway circling the metropolitan area.

Friday, February 9, 2001

Foothill Freeway envisioned

Caltrans unveils the project at a Woodlake open house.

By Barbara E. Hernandez

Special to the Bee

(Published February 9, 2001)

The California Department of Transportation recently held an open house in Woodlake to talk about extending Highway 65, the Foothill Freeway.

The highway would extend north of Highway 198 into Fresno and Madera counties.

It was the first of four meetings. Others also were in Madera, Friant and Sanger. The extended freeway would serve the foothill communities of Tulare, Fresno and Madera counties, and would be used as a bypass and an eastern beltway connection. The goal would be to align Highway 65, now south of Highway 198, with Highway 65 in Rocklin.

About 100 people came to the Woodlake Union High School auditorium to talk with Caltrans about the proposed highway.

The route probably will follow the Friant-Kern Canal, but no one will know how close or far away until environmental studies have been completed, said Jim Bane, Caltrans project manager.

Caltrans officials also said five species of animals in the area, including the federally protected giant kangaroo rat, would affect the building of the highway.

Some residents of foothill communities said they appreciate their quality of life and are worried about putting a highway next to their beloved retreats.

"I'm concerned because of the additional pollution," said Lydia Castaneda, who lives in Elderwood, a region just north of Woodlake. "It would be swell to think we'd get up and down the area easier, but not at the expense of the peace and quiet."

Alan McCuen, Caltrans District 6 planning chief, said some people would not like the highway proposal.

"You've always got more than one opinion even on a site like Highway 65," he said. "Some people would like access possibilities as well as those who like to keep their transportation as primitive as possible."

Woodlake Mayor Frances Ortiz said the highway would be good for Woodlake because it could spark development.

"It will help get people out of town faster and safer, and hopefully businesses will benefit from it," she said.

Completion of Highway 65 to Fairmead in Madera County is expected in 2050.

SANBAG shows plans to unclog highway

JOHN W. DEVRIES

Friday, February 09, 2001

REDLANDS Slow tractor-trailers congesting eastbound traffic on Interstate 10 between Ford Street in Redlands and Live Oak Canyon Road in Yucaipa are a thing of the past.

At least on paper.

A continuous stream of home and business owners from Redlands and Yucaipa filed through Redlands City Hall Thursday night to learn more about the San Bernardino Associated Governments project to alleviate local highway traffic jams.

The three-step project includes adding a truck lane to the eastbound section of I-10, expanding the off-ramp and overpass at Live Oak Canyon Road and adding a fourth lane to the eastbound freeway near Ford Street.

The estimated cost for the project is $12 million, said Cheryl Donahue, a SANBAG spokeswoman.

Combining the efforts of SANBAG, Caltrans, and the cities of Redlands and Yucaipa, the entire project may be completed by early 2006, Donahue said.

The first stage will be the truck lane along the 4-percent uphill grade that slows many tractor-trailers and the vehicles around them.

"It may not sound like much, but when you're driving, it is," Donahue said.

Funding is coming from federal, state and local sources. Local funding is through San Bernardino County's 1/2-cent sales tax provided by the 1989 passage of Measure I.

"We in the east end have been pushing for our fair share of freeway money," said Yucaipa Mayor Dick Riddell, who attended the open house. "On Live Oak Canyon cars really back up trying to get off at night and it creates a hazard."

Riddell is a Yucaipa representative to SANBAG.

Resident concern was focused on sound walls along the Redlands stretch of freeway.

The nearly 4-mile stretch of freeway cuts through mainly residential zones in Redlands and business zones in Yucaipa, Donahue said.

"They're concerned that adding new lanes will create more noise," Donahue said. "They want to make sure they get a wall."

Sound studies will determine which stretches of the freeway will get sound walls, she said.

The walls stop more than noise, as far as lifelong Redlands resident Melinda Ameye is concerned.

From her home, near Cambon Court and Grove Street, Ameye and her two children have seen too many vehicles drive off the freeway and careen down into their neighborhood.

Ameye said a sound wall acting as a guardrail is a doubly protective device but since she lives near the westbound lanes, "the chances are there," she said. "It's just gotten too busy."

The concrete walls, which range from 8 to 16 feet in height, cost about $1 million per mile.

Traffic studies of the area project that by 2025 the eastbound lanes will handle nearly 11,000 vehicles per hour during peak commuting hours, with 700 tractor-trailers, Donahue said.

The projections double today's eastbound commuting numbers.

"A lot of that is because the area (population) has grown so dramatically," Donahue said.

Sunday, February 11, 2001

BAKERSFIELD CALIFORNIAN

Transportation study proposals to change travel in metropolitan Bakersfield area

Filed: 02/11/2001

The Bakersfield Californian

City and county transportation planners have unveiled 20 potential transportation systems that will likely change how people travel in the metropolitan Bakersfield area.

The proposals are part of the Bakersfield Systems Study, a $1.9 million study commissioned by the Kern Council of Governments to suggest a variety of road projects that could relieve congestion and improve crosstown traffic movement.

The 21 maps, one of which offers no changes to the current system, were compiled by engineers after collecting the traffic concerns and comments from residents, business and community groups.

Many corridors highlighted in the map will look familiar, said Jeff Chapman, project manager with URS Greiner Woodward Clyde, the firm conducting the study.

Routes such as the Kern River Freeway and the South Beltway have been studied before, but not as part of the larger transportation system.

The proposals mix and match different corridors, or areas that would be emphasized as travelways. A corridor doesn't necessarily mean a freeway will be built. At the end of the study, the final transportation improvements could be any one of the proposals, or a combination of pieces from various proposals.

Planners will be collecting public comments on the proposals in the coming weeks. Then they will narrow the alternatives and begin evaluating the cost, traffic effectiveness and community and economic impacts.

After a public hearing in the spring, consultants will take the proposed road projects to the Bakersfield City Council and Board of Supervisors for comment before Kern COG makes the final decision in June or July.

The maps, fact sheet and newsletter on the Systems Study is available on the City of Bakersfield Web site at www.ci.bakersfield.ca.us/study/. On-line comment forms will be available on the site as well.

Thursday, February 15, 2001

SAN FRANCISO CHRONICLE (?)

New Bay Bridge estimate now exceeds $2.2 billion

By Sean Holstege

STAFF WRITER

Thursday, February 15, 2001

Any hope of Bay Area bridge tolls returning to $1, as promised, appear to be fizzling as Caltrans plans to ask lawmakers for more money to strengthen Bay spans for earthquakes.

Caltrans is expected to report to the Legislature within two weeks that the cost of replacing the eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge has climbed from $1.6 billion to more than $2.2 billion, several well-placed transportation officials said.

Among the remedies Caltrans is also expected to suggest: extending a $1 toll surcharge on all Bay Area bridges beyond its 2008 expiration and shifting state funds.

Increasing tolls has not been contemplated, sources said.

Any changes require legislative approval.

But already, before any money has been found or actual construction work on the new eastern Bay Bridge begun, local transportation agencies are lining up to spend toll revenues for other uses. Currently, tolls generate $120 million a year.

"I've heard staff from many agencies talk about that, and when they do, they get very big eyes," said Christine Monsen, executive director of the Alameda County Transportation Authority.

Little more than an idea, suggestions include everything from a new Transbay Terminal and a fourth bore of the Caldecott Tunnel to operating costs for a ferry system, Dumbarton Bridge rail service and long-haul buses.

Although the Metropolitan Transportation Commission decides how to spend bridge tolls, the agency was mum about the issue when it lobbied the capitol this week.

"It really sits in Caltrans' court. We're just waiting," explained Randy Rentschler, MTC's legislative affairs manager, acknowledging a common desire to tap bridge tolls for other projects.

Several Bay Area lawmakers declined to discuss the issue, saying they need more information before forming an opinion. Legislative aides said the state energy crisis is all-consuming.

Added Senate Transportation Committee Staff Director Steve Schnaidt, "The messenger is going to deliver tough news. Who wants to do that?"

But Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks and vice chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, was appalled.

"It's completely outrageous that tolls, promised to end in the 1950's, have grown and been siphoned off," McClintock said. "Tolls have turned into a fiscal grab bag."

When the Bay Bridge opened in 1936 tolls were 40 cents. The public was told the crossing would be free once the construction debt was paid off in the mid-1950s. Instead, tolls gradually climbed to $1 to pay for MTC, BART's Transbay Tube and other transportation needs.

In 1997, the state doubled the toll on state-owned bridges to $2. That generated half of the $2.6 billion needed to strengthen five Bay Area bridges and a San Diego bridge and to rebuild the Bay Bridge between Oakland and Yerba Buena Island. The other half came from state highway funds.

The law requires Caltrans to report to the Legislature when it determines that it needs more than $2.6 billion to finish the job.

Caltrans documents place the cost of strengthening Southern California's Vincent-Thomas and San Diego-Coronado bridges plus the local San Mateo, Richmond-San Rafael, Carquinez, Benicia and western Bay bridges at $1.2 billion.

That leaves $1.4 billion to build a new eastern span of the Bay Bridge, but two years ago Caltrans publicly estimated the cost at $1.6 billion. The upcoming report will point to $200 million in delays from political squabbling among Caltrans, the U.S. Navy and San Francisco plus an 18 percent increase in construction costs last year. Caltrans is finishing the report and double-checking figures before releasing its assessment.

"The decision hasn't been made yet. We need to finalize our estimates first," Caltrans Spokesman Dennis Trujillo said. "When you don't have numbers, you can't move forward."

CONTRA COSTA TIMES

Richmond targets truck traffic

Ignoring warnings that it would be acting illegally, the City Council moves toward limiting the larger vehicles on Cutting Boulevard

By Shawn Masten

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Published Thursday, February 15, 2001

RICHMOND -- Unconvinced that it is restricted by either state or local laws, the City Council has taken a much anticipated step toward limiting truck traffic on Cutting Boulevard.

By a 7-0 vote, the council Tuesday approved the first reading of an emergency ordinance that would impose a 31/2-ton weight limit on the busy thoroughfare, heeding the call of residents who long have sought relief from truck traffic on the city's south side.

Tuesday's vote came over the objections of City Attorney Malcolm Hunter and planning manager Martin Jacobson.

Both told the council that Richmond is legally required to conduct an engineering study and environmental review before weight limits can be imposed on city streets.

The city's municipal code allows the council to specify weight limits on certain streets if an engineering investigation by the public services director determines them to be "structurally inadequate" to carry heavy loads.

Without proper study, the city could be held liable for negatively impacting businesses that rely on the trucks for deliveries. The courts might also throw out tickets issued by the city to truckers who violate the new restriction, Hunter said.

The council Tuesday was initially expected to consider authorizing its staff to conduct an "appropriate environmental review" for adoption of an ordinance banning truck traffic on Cutting.

The council instead voted unanimously to consider the ordinance under emergency provisions. Councilman Gary Bell then abstained from the vote. Mayor Rosemary Corbin was absent.

"I didn't feel the need to vote to do something ... that would be violation of state law," Bell said Wednesday.

But other council members said that residents along Cutting Boulevard had lived too long with the constant rumbling of trucks in their neighborhood.

"We should try and give some kind of relief to these citizens," said Councilman Charles Belcher. "This is a matter of principal. We can do whatever we want to when we want to do it."

The council is expected to take a final vote on the matter Tuesday. If approved, signs would be erected along 2.2 miles of Cutting between Interstate 80 and Harbour Way South near Interstate 580. The cost hasn't been determined.

Before the vote several residents spoke of having lived with the problem for more than 30 years. Longtime southside resident Willie Gholar submitted a petition signed by 150 residents that supported the weight limit.

City officials and residents had hoped that construction of the Richmond Parkway -- a 7.3 mile expressway linking the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and Interstate 80 -- would go a long way toward solving the problem, but residents said the truck traffic remains unchanged.

"I can feel those trucks," Gholar said. "Our houses vibrate. China falls off the shelves."

Much of industrial area along Cutting Boulevard lies below Harbour Way and will be spared the ban, but truckers at Tuesday's meeting said something less onerous could have been worked out if the city had come to them in the first place.

"You could have asked us a long time ago to give you a break," a trucking company owner told the council.

Councilman Nat Bates and several others had been calling for weight restrictions on Cutting for months, saying it would give residents some peace and save the city money on street repairs.

"I can't see anything that would be negative in terms of the neighborhood," Bates said before the vote. "Getting trucks off Cutting is a positive impact."

The council's action comes with the city awaiting the results of a West Countywide study of truck traffic that will include Cutting Boulevard, a street considered to be of regional significance to local transportation authorities.

The study, which was commissioned by the West Contra Costa Transportation Advisory Committee, is expected to be completed in three months, executive director Lisa Hammon said.

The committee, which includes Richmond council members Irma Anderson and John Marquez, who voted for the signs, doesn't have the authority to challenge the council's decision, said Maria Alegria, a committee member representing Pinole.

"It's their call," she said. "But it's not just a local issue. It's a regional route so you need a regional strategy.

"We want it to work for Richmond but we need to have a strategy to educate the public and the truckers."

San Pablo banned all through-truck traffic except on Giant Road between Road 20 and the northern city limits in 1998 after a spending about $20,000 to study the potential impact on traffic and air quality. The study was conducted after Richmond and others raised concerns about eliminating traffic on Giant Road, which remains a designated truck route.

"It's become clear that there are effects on other jurisdictions when changes are made" to existing truck routes, Hammon said.

SACRAMENTO BEE

Signs of old times in W. Sac

Historic highway gains recognition

By Pamela Martineau

Bee Staff Writer

(Published Feb. 15, 2001)

With the twist of a metal screw, the destinies of Eddie Lang and old Highway 40 were secured Wednesday.

That's when West Sacramento city workers bolted a black and white sign to a lamppost on West Capitol Avenue, culminating a nearly four-year campaign by Lang to bring the roadway fame and glory.

The sign is the first of about 2,000 markers that will be placed from Reno to San Francisco to designate roadways part of the historic -- and now defunct -- U.S. 40. The metal placards realize a longtime dream of Lang, who's known around town as "Mr. 40" for his seemingly tireless campaign to salute the old highway.

"I believe some people are groomed to do certain things," said Lang, 67. "And I believe this was my mission in life."

Lang, along with a small band of West Sacramento preservationists, lobbied lawmakers for two years to make Highway 40 a historic landmark. They eventually won out, but were stymied in their quest to obtain money to buy signs that flaunted the highway's historic status.

Eventually, Lang and his supporters asked private businesses and residents to sponsor markers along the historic route. Some 65 West Sacramento residents and businesses bought into the plan, making the city the first in Northern California to install the black and white signs.

The first sign went up Wednesday during a small ceremony attended by some of the town's old-time residents.

"I've watched things come and go," said Helen Merkley, who remembers when old Highway 40 was the main route through the Sierra before Interstate 80 was built about 40 years ago. "And this is going to make us noticed."

West Sacramento Police Chief Gary Leonard said the signs bring civic pride to the community.

"It shows community spirit by people getting behind it," Leonard said.

For reasons he can't quite explain, Lang became enamored a few years back with old Highway 40, the transcontinental route that once meandered from Atlantic City, N.J., to San Francisco. The highway was once the main thoroughfare through the Sierra, bringing tourists and vacationing families. Those tourists often stopped in West Sacramento, sleeping in the small motels that line West Capitol Avenue.

But when Interstate 80 came through, people started bypassing West Sacramento.

"Unfortunately, when we put the new interstate system in, a lot of towns became backwater," said Norman Root, a member of the California Department of Transportation's Historic Preservation Committee.

Lang and other members of the Historic U.S. 40 Association say the signs could bring the tourists back to town. People may one day seek the charms of old Highway 40 as they do the fabled Route 66.

Lang is working with other Northern California towns, such as Auburn, Truckee, Dixon and Colfax, that the old highway once traversed.

He also wants signs erected in those communities and is willing to help make it happen.

A former minor league pitcher who fought in Korea, Lang has made the promotion of Old Highway 40 his life's work. "If it's up to me, everybody's going to know where 40 is," he said.

Lang and his band of Highway 40 enthusiasts publish a newspaper and have printed a map of the old route. Just about every week they meet in West Sacramento at Helen's Picnic Place, a restaurant along the old highway, where they talk over coffee about getting more signs. One day, they hope to launch a Web site.

"Highway 40 is now like Route 66 through eternity," Lang said. "And that can never be taken away."

Saturday, February 17, 2001

PRESS-ENTERPRISE

Backing sought for corridors plan

A Temecula-Beaumont route is intended to ease future freeway congestion.

By Tim O'Leary

The Press-Enterprise

Published 2/17/2001

On Tuesday, Riverside County transportation advisers will press federal transportation and wildlife agencies for support of a future roads network aimed at preventing gridlock in the county's midsection.

Consultants will give the agencies a list of nine new connections and road-widening projects that survived intense scrutiny from growth-wary residents, environmentalists and engineers.

Fifteen potential options were dropped because of resident opposition, environmental impacts or big price tags, said James B. Henderson, a Riverside engineer working on the county's $20 million integrated plan process.

In order to keep the transportation plan on track, county officials hope to identify the agencies' concerns and win their backing within 30 days.

"We need to get their concurrence or they will be an opposition instead of supporters," Henderson said. "That's not something you want to do because it slows the process."

After a series of public workshops and later analysis by road engineers, several transportation options were eliminated from those being studied as part of two future transit corridors that would cross the midcounty area.

A route called the Temecula to Beaumont corridor is intended to ease future congestion on interstates 215 and 15 by skirting the cities of Temecula, Murrieta, Hemet and Moreno Valley as they travel north and south through the middle of Riverside County.

Another corridor plan calls for upgrading roads that loop from Corona to Lake Elsinore and Hemet.

Those two corridors are the primary focus of the county's transportation planning. Planning on two other corridors, which would improve links with Orange and San Bernardino counties, is two to three years behind the midcounty routes, Henderson said.

The multiyear plan seeks to show how the county could double its population over the next 20 years without permitting gridlock or destroying key areas that are home to endangered or threatened plants or animals.

Analysts predict traffic on Winchester Road will increase 240 percent by 2020, followed by a 130 percent increase on sections of I-215 and I-15.

More than half the options studied as part of the proposed corridor connecting Corona to Lake Elsinore and Hemet were eliminated, including work to widen busy Van Buren Boulevard and connect it to Cajalco Road.

Another key deletion was work to improve Newport and Railroad Canyon roads, a pair of heavily traveled streets that could be upgraded to handle more traffic between Winchester Road and I-15. Resident opposition in the Canyon Lake and Menifee areas derailed that option, Henderson said.

"They didn't move out there to be on a freeway, that's what they told us," he said.

Although land at the east end of Clinton Keith Road is home to threatened or endangered species, Temecula City Councilman Ron Roberts and other local officials pressed to keep that connection on the county's plans. That option also calls for widening Winchester Road.

Improvements to Clinton Keith and Scott roads are seen as key future connections between Winchester Road and I-215. Improvements to Keller and Leon roads were ruled out because of environmental concerns and the high cost of building a freeway interchange.

John Cockrell, who has lived along a dirt portion of Newport Road near Winchester Road for 15 years, said his area is too important to ignore.

"I think they should improve mine, too," he said Friday afternoon. Clinton Keith and Scott roads are too far south to create an effective shortcut between I-215 and Hemet, he said.

"The people over in Menifee, I'm sure they'd like to see it come through," he said.

Cockrell, who expressed these views during a recent county roads workshop, said traffic has increased dramatically on Winchester Road over the past five years and there have been several fatal accidents near his home.

Environmental concerns eliminated a potential new route through the Sedco Hills near Lake Elsinore. The remaining options in the Corona to Lake Elsinore and Hemet corridor focus on improvements to the Ramona Expressway, Cajalco Road, Highway 74 and Ethanac Road.

Much of the planning for a new Temecula-Murrieta corridor focuses on a north-south route that proposes extending the Domenigoni Parkway, eventually connecting it to Butterfield Stage Road and ending it at Highway 79 South or possibly continuing it onto I-15 at Rainbow.

A new bypass route that would link the Domenigoni Parkway with I-15 at a new interchange proposed at Date Street was eliminated because of engineering difficulties and expense. Temecula and Caltrans officials are continuing to study whether an interchange can be built there. The study is expected to be finished in July.

Tuesday, February 20, 2001

SACRAMENTO BEE

A new span but same old traffic:

Bay Area fighting an uphill battle to ease its crush of cars

By Herbert A. Sample

Bee San Francisco Bureau

(Published Feb. 20, 2001)

OAKLAND -- After 11 1/2 years of debate, design and political haggling, it appears that construction of a new, earthquake-safe bridge will begin later this year to replace the eastern span of the 65-year-old San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

The new 10-lane span is only one piece in a large puzzle of transportation projects in the region that will require billions of dollars, mostly to strengthen existing bridges against quake hazards.

But the new Bay Bridge will provide no more vehicle capacity than the current one. And the other projects will only modestly alleviate the traffic woes that beset the San Francisco region and have been exacerbated in recent years as the economy has heated up.

While transportation officials are studying alternatives aimed at congestion -- including a new bridge spanning the southern half of the bay and a substantial expansion of ferry service -- most believe that traffic will lessen significantly only when fewer cars ply the roads.

"Until we convince people to get out of their cars to some degree and either carpool or use mass transit, there's no way to build ourselves out of this mess in this economy," said Sharon Brown, a San Pablo councilwoman who becomes chairwoman of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission later this month. "We're always trying to play catch-up."

While most of the major bridges in the Bay Area are scheduled for extensive construction work, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge clearly has been the biggest political football of them all.

The debate began after the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, which caused a section of the upper roadway on the eastern span between Yerba Buena Island and Oakland to collapse onto the lower lanes, killing a woman.

Engineers concluded that the suspension-style western span between the island and San Francisco could be reinforced to withstand a powerful quake. (That work has begun.)

But the state Transportation Department opted to replace rather than retrofit the truss-and-cantilever-style eastern span because a new structure would cost about the same and would be safer.

Soon, though, the project bogged down in complaints and political maneuverings. San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown preferred that the existing span be retrofitted. When that was rejected, he said the new span would interfere with his redevelopment plans for Treasure Island, which sits next to Yerba Buena Island.

For his part, Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown didn't like the proposed design, calling it a "mediocre freeway on stilts."

The Navy, which will turn over Treasure Island to San Francisco next year, was so upset with the new span's placement that it threatened to arrest Caltrans workers who attempted to drill test borings for bridge footings.

Finally, last year, the Navy was ordered to hand over the necessary land. The test bores are being drilled, and construction is scheduled to begin in the fall, said Caltrans spokesman Colin Jones.

The chosen design incorporates two styles. Closest to Oakland, vehicles will drive on two side-by-side five-lane viaducts supported by pylons. Closer to Yerba Buena Island, the roadway will be suspended from cables that lead to a single, 530-foot steel tower.

The roadway will merge into the existing two-level Yerba Buena tunnel and then onto the western span. The eastern span will include a bicycle lane, and a 25- to 30-acre park is planned where it touches down in Oakland.

The project will cost at least $1.5 billion -- to be paid through a combination of tolls and state and federal funds -- and is scheduled to be finished by late 2005. The existing eastern span will be demolished.

Though the new bridge will contain shoulders and amenities not found on the current span, it will not provide added traffic capacity. That option was dropped, impeded by financial, engineering and political concerns.

"There really isn't a strong public consensus that the way to address traffic congestion is to build additional bridge capacity," said Martin Wachs, director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. "There are a lot of people who believe that expanding capacity only invites more traffic."

Some capacity expansions are under way in the region. The San Mateo-Hayward Bridge will go from two lanes in each direction to three. The 73-year-old, three-lane western span of the Carquinez Bridge will be replaced by a four-lane structure. And a new span will transform the six-lane Benicia-Martinez bridge into nine lanes.

But the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge is undergoing only a seismic retrofit, and no work is planned for the relatively new Dumbarton Bridge.

A number of transit projects are being readied as well, such as an extension of Bay Area Rapid Transit District service from Fremont to San Jose. And analysts are studying myriad ideas -- large and small, vehicle- and transit-oriented -- that could help around the edges.

For example, Caltrans is looking at drilling a fourth bore in the Caldecott Tunnel, which links Oakland and Orinda. However, engineers caution that would relieve traffic for motorists heading only in the direction opposite that of most weekday commuters, though it would help in both directions on weekends.

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission also is starting to examine new ways of getting people across the bay. One option, pushed by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is a new bridge that, perhaps, would land near the San Francisco International Airport.

Commission officials are quick to distinguish that concept from the "southern crossing" proposal between Alameda and Hunter's Point in San Francisco that voters rejected 30 years ago. Environmental groups, though, have been cool to the most recent idea.

Meanwhile, the newly created San Francisco Bay Area Water Transit Authority is beginning serious discussions to determine the economic and logistical feasibility of substantially increasing the number and routes of passenger ferries in the bay. The existing services are stuffed to the gills.

"The people who commute daily are ready to jump off the bridge," said Charlene Haught Johnson, president of the authority. "Some people believe, and I'm one of them, that if we get a ferry system up and running, we can divert commuters from the bridges and BART, which is already operating at capacity."

PRESS-ENTERPRISE

Counties to study commute

11 alternatives are considered

By John F. Berry

The Press-Enterprise

Published 2/20/2001

Michele Fox's front yard is ground zero in three of the 11 plans designed to improve traffic flow between Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

That's why Fox and her husband are moving from their house, which already shares a front yard with the busy Reche Vista Drive and Reche Canyon Road intersection just north of Moreno Valley.

"There's accidents all the time," Fox said. "There are animals out there and people drive so fast."

A new $1 million study will explore 11 ways San Bernardino and Riverside counties can better accommodate the estimated 150,000 vehicles that already travel I-215 between the counties daily.

Two of the plans under consideration could put a six-lane parkway, connecting Highway 60 to Interstate 10, next to Fox's house.

Other alternatives include widening Interstate 215/Highway 60, connecting Pigeon Pass Road to Center Street and Main Street and widening Perris Boulevard.

The Riverside County Transportation Commission, says daily traffic between the counties could reach 280,000 by 2020.

Planners hope the study will allow for construction that will improve safety, reduce commute times and relieve congestion on I-215 while protecting the environment and preserving country life. Mass transit, including bus service and commuter rail, also is part of the study.

Moreno Valley's Thomas Holt said his three-hour daily roundtrip to various points in the two counties is already "like hell."

"I know all the back streets," he said, leaning against the hood of his white pickup at a Moreno Valley convenience store. "I can tell you all the ways to go."

Holt, a maintenance supervisor for four cement companies on both sides of the line, said he has been making the cross-county commute for about 15 years. He said he favors widening I-215, but he just wants to see something done -- and soon.

"I just get sick of the traffic, totally," Holt said. "I get frustrated. I just want to get home."

The $1 million study is evenly split between governments and agencies within the two counties. The latest piece of the funding pie came earlier this month when the San Bernardino Associated Governments came up with its $250,000 share.

The Moreno Valley-San Bernardino County study is one of four corridors Riverside County is pursuing through the Community and Environmental Transportation Acceptability Process. The process's goal is to debug planning and ease environmental angst so construction can start as soon as money is found.

The Riverside County Transportation Commission also is studying corridors linking Riverside and Orange counties, Hemet, Corona and Lake Elsinore, and Temecula and Banning and Beaumont.

Planners on both sides of the county line expect some speed bumps from people who live where the traffic will flow. Planners emphasize that everything, thus far, is tentative.

"This is conceptual right now," said Dennis Barton, the public works superintendent for Loma Linda. "It's a study of alternative routes. It could be one route, several routes."

Public hearings about the alternatives are planned for late March or early April, said David Miller, a planner with TransCore, a transportation consulting firm working with the two counties.

One potential alternative and road block is improving Redlands Boulevard, a route that is officially on the table, TransCore consultant Steve Smith said last week.

"From the Loma Linda perspective, it's in. From the Redlands perspective, it's out," Smith said. "It's one of those `in-between' jobs."

Thursday, February 22, 2001

PRESS-ENTERPRISE

Construction work starts on I-10 project

Freeway lanes will be closed as guardrails are being removed at the Sierra Avenue overpass.

By Imran Ghori

The Press-Enterprise

Published 2/22/2001

Crews were scheduled to start minor demolition work on the Sierra Avenue/I-10 overpass early this morning.

Although the bridge will eventually be demolished as part of the $18 million project, only the guardrails are being removed as part of the three-night operation, which will continue tonight and Monday.

All eastbound lanes on Interstate 10 are scheduled to be closed at Sierra Avenue from 11:59 p.m. tonight until 6 a.m. Friday. The westbound lanes will be closed Monday night from 11:59 p.m. until 6 a.m. Tuesday.

Traffic will be diverted to the Sierra Avenue exit and straight across to the onramp, said Dennis Green, Caltrans construction liaison.

Using mechanical equipment, crews plan to chip the concrete off the structure and cut metal with blowtorches to remove the guardrails, Green said. The concrete will fall onto a foot-deep pad of dirt on the freeway below and will be hauled away in trucks, he said.

Green said it takes between an hour and 90 minutes to set up the traffic controls and take them down, giving crews about 3-? hours to do their work.

"We have a very limited window," he said.

The removal of the guardrails represents the first major work on the overpass. So far crews have cleared trees from the side of the freeway and made drainage improvements, Green said.

Once the guardrails are removed, construction on the outer portions of a new bridge will begin. Traffic will then be diverted to the outer lanes and the old overpass will be demolished, sometime this fall, followed by construction of the middle portion of the overpass, Green said.

The project is expected to be completed by fall 2002, relieving the congested interchange by adding more lanes to the overpass and freeway ramps.

Road improvements, extra patrols contribute to safer commute

By TRINA KLEIST

Sentinel staff writer

February 22, 2001

SANTA CRUZ - Two years of road improvements, speeding tickets, spot checks of trucks and more police patrols have made the treacherous curves of Highway 17 safer, officers said Wednesday.

Collisions dropped 34 percent for the final three months of 2000, while injury collisions fell 46 percent, compared to two years ago.

Two fatalities occurred on the Santa Clara County side of the hill and none in Santa Cruz.

"I can’t remember a time when we’ve had no fatalities on the Santa Cruz side," said Blake Schnabel, spokesman for the California Highway Patrol.

More than 62,000 vehicles a day ply the mountain highway. That number is expected to swell to 75,000 within 20 years, according to the state Department of Transportation.

Yet there are fewer wrecks. There were 113 accidents with 31 injuries in the corridor in 2000, dropping from 170 accidents with 57 injuries in 1998.

Capt. Dave Stuflick, commander of the California Highway Patrol office in Aptos, attributed the drop to publicity campaigns aimed at teaching motorists to improve their driving in the mountains.

Much of the improvement came through quick fixes such as more speed signs at curves and better maintenance, said traffic engineer Deb Larson of Caltrans District 4 in San Luis Obispo.

More law enforcement officers on the road also slow speeders. Officers have clocked motorists at 75 mph on the straightaway by Lexington Reservoir.

"Some people just don’t get it," CHP Officer Steve Oreglia said.

More than 2,300 citations were issued in the last three months of 2000 for speeding or causing collisions.

Word also is getting out to cargo companies that trucks are getting pulled over for spot inspections, and that wobbly steering boxes and worn brakes will get vehicles sidelined, Oreglia said.

More improvements are coming as a result of work by a task force of local and state officials on both sides of the hill.

Improvements to turnouts and shoulders at the Summit will start in June.

Some redwoods could be cut to improve northbound visibility around what California Highway Patrol officers call Valley Surprise, the first curve heading down from the Summit. Officials are waiting for environmental permits.

Another project expected to cost at least $4 million will drain rain water away from a six-mile stretch from Summit Road to Santa Cruz Avenue. It is the most accident-prone segment of the Highway 17 corridor; 178 of the 210 wrecks there in the past three years occurred during wet weather, said John M. Thomas of Caltrans.

The 2005 drainage project aims to cut the number of wrecks in half.

A project to widen the inner and outer shoulders along nearly two miles on either side of the Glenwood cutoff could reduce accidents by 30 percent, Larson said.

Most accidents there occur in the southbound lanes. A flashing sign has been installed, but Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has not been able to connect it because of work connected to recent storms.

SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS

Nickname for Hwy. 17 curve takes a new turn

Published Thursday, Feb. 22, 2001, in the San Jose Mercury News

BY GARY RICHARDS

Mercury News Staff Columnist

As far as the state is concerned, the Valley Surprise no longer exists.

That is the nickname given years ago to the first sharp northbound curve after the Highway 17 summit. Just two-tenths of a mile long, it ranks as the most dangerous stretch of road in Santa Clara County with a collision rate nine times greater than the state average.

It's so dangerous that in the mid-1980s a motorist painted ``Valley Surprise'' on a metal guardrail at the site. The nickname stuck, but you won't hear state engineers using it anymore.

``Our legal department has asked us to no longer refer to it as the `Valley Surprise,' '' said Caltrans' John Thomas. ``We are now calling it the `two-tenths of a mile' curve.''

No wonder. The nickname implies an inherently dangerous road. From 1997 to 1999, 210 accidents occurred here -- 178 of them on wet days. The Highway Patrol has been pressing the state to make drastic changes, such as widening the shoulders and clearing trees.

While some trees may be cut, adding pavement could cost $20 million or more. And, said Thomas, it might not reduce the number of accidents.

Instead, Caltrans plans to begin drainage work in three more years that it believes could reduce water on the road even more and trim accidents up to 40 percent. This work will cost about $4 million.

The Valley Transportation Authority is conducting its own study on possible improvements and should release its findings this spring.

Let's call it the Valley Surprise Report.

More on Highway 17: Since state and regional officials began a safety task force on this four-lane mountain road two years ago, injury accidents have fallen 40 percent and wrecks 27 percent overall.

This far surpasses the goal of 10 percent.

The crackdown has been funded by state grants for everything from overtime for traffic cops to the cost of safety literature and a temporary CHP building at the Summit.

But that funding may soon run out. Safety officials are pressing the state to at least continue with funds to pay for extra CHP enforcement.

Friday, February 23, 2001

FRESNO BEE

Hwy. 180 study gets $8 million

The Fresno Bee

(Published February 23, 2001)

Gov. Davis announced Thursday that the California Transportation Commission has approved $8 million to study an extension of Highway 180 from Mendota to Interstate 5.

The funding joins $35 million in federal construction funds for the project passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton last fall. The extension would stretch 15 to 20 miles.

The Highway 180 plan was one of seven transportation projects approved for money by the commission. Another was the widening of Jersey Avenue in Kings County, which received $1.5 million.

"We are convinced successful implementation of these projects designed to improve the California's transportation system will significantly ease the everyday lives of many Californians," the governor said in a statement.

PASADENA STAR

CALPIRG comes out against 710 extension

By Mary Schubert

Staff Writer

Friday, February 23, 2001

SOUTH PASADENA -- Construction of the Long Beach (710) Freeway would be a waste of taxpayers' money and environmentally destructive, a consumer and environmental advocacy group said Thursday.

The California Public Interest Research Group included the proposed 4.5-mile freeway segment on its list of 74 programs that governments should eliminate, saving taxpayers $55 billion in the process, they claim.

CALPIRG's recommendations were included in "Green Scissors 2001," an annual report. Also collaborating on the report were Citizens United to Save South Pasadena, a local anti-freeway group, and Taxpayers for Common Sense and Friends of the Earth.

"Building the 710 Freeway through South Pasadena would destroy a historic and healthy community for the hefty price of $1.4 billion (and) would fail to alleviate traffic," said Evelyn Richards, an advocate for CALPIRG.

She said CALPIRG supports alternatives to the freeway, such as the Los Angeles to Pasadena Blue Line commuter rail; the Alameda Corridor, which will run parallel to the 710 and carry freight traffic; and the Alameda Corridor East, which will carry freight through the San Gabriel Valley between the Pomona (60) and San Bernardino (10) freeways.

"Spending $1.4 billion on a freeway project that would just add to traffic congestion doesn't make any sense for citizens and taxpayers," Richards said.

On hand for the announcement in front of South Pasadena City Hall was Paul Hubler, deputy chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena.

"Please make sure that Congressman Schiff does not let (the federal government) program any funds for the 710 Freeway," urged Mary Ann Parada, a spokeswoman for Citizens United to Save South Pasadena.

"The state (government) and the MTA always look and, if the federal government doesn't fund it, they back off," Parada said. "We have stopped them from building the 710 Freeway next to our high school for 37 years."

Schiff "fully supports efforts to come up with alternatives to the 710 Freeway," Hubler said. Just as he did in the state Senate, Schiff --a freshman congressman -- opposes construction of the segment through South Pasadena, El Sereno and Pasadena.

"It's simply a wasteful boondoggle," Hubler said.

Sunday, February 25, 2001

CONTRA COSTA TIMES

ALAMEDA COUNTY MAY RAISE SALES TAX

TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY VOTES 8-0 FOR THE HALF-CENT INCREASE; IT MUST BE OK'D

Section: News

Edition: Final

Page: A03 Bonita Brewer

OAKLAND Environmentalists and building industry representatives who usually lock horns pledged Thursday to work together to support extension of an Alameda County half-cent sales tax for transportation projects.

The county Transportation Authority board voted 8-0 to approve a proposed 20-year, $1.4 billion expenditure plan for the November ballot. The plan must now be approved by a majority of the county's 14 city councils; the county Board of Supervisors would then be asked to place the measure on the ballot.

Proponents say this plan fills many of the political cracks and potholes that sunk a tax-extension ballot measure in 1998. Needing a two-thirds vote to pass, that measure was supported by 58.6 percent of voters.

"This measure is a win-win for all the county's residents," said Supervisor Scott Haggerty, who represents much of the Livermore-Amador Valley and who chairs the transportation authority board.

"The revised plan takes critical action to bring congestion relief in an economic and environmentally sound way to the region's transportation network."

To win support from environmental groups, the plan earmarks an additional $186 million for transit, paratransit, bicycle and pedestrian programs.

"I am extremely delighted to say that we are prepared to support the revised plan," said Jeff Hobson of the Bay Area Transportation and Land Use Coalition, made up of groups including the Sierra Club, the East Bay Bicycle Coalition and Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency, which represents the poor.

"It will go a long way toward easing congestion and increasing transportation choices for all Alameda County residents."

Meanwhile, California Alliance for Jobs deputy director Tom Goff said the alliance is pleased that the plan gives 40 percent of its total funding for highways, BART extensions, interchange improvements and other capital projects.

Although the 1998 plan earmarked more for those purposes, "We realize there had to be a compromise struck or the plan would go nowhere," Goff said. "We are glad the environmentalists came on board."

Under this proposal, transit would get $311 million, or about 21 percent of the money. Another $148.6 million, or 10.5 percent, would go to paratransit programs for the elderly and disabled, and $71.1 million would be earmarked for bicycle and pedestrian programs. Local street departments would get $317.8 million, or 22 percent.

* $165.5 million for a BART extension to the Warm Springs area of Fremont if money for a rail connection to Santa Clara County is secured.

* $70 million for a four-lane Route 84 expressway through Livermore, with another $20 million for a new Route 84-Interstate 580 interchange.

* $66 million for Highway 238 widening between Castro Valley and San Leandro.

* $65 million for a BART-Oakland airport connector.

* $25.8 million to implement "express lanes" over Interstate 680's Sunol Grade, if feasible. The lanes would be free of charge to car-poolers and buses, with excess capacity available to others paying a toll. If the plan isn't feasible, the money would help pay for a regular northbound I-680 carpool lane.

LOS ANGELES TIMES (?)

Residents Mobilize to Reduce Flow of Traffic Through Casitas Springs

The number of cars traveling along California 33 makes it difficult to come and go. Some view a two-lane bypass as a viable solution.

By STEVE DURFEE

Sunday, February 25, 2001

Casitas means "little houses."

The name Casitas Springs came from the days when the Chumash set up little houses near what is now Foster Park, at the northern end of Ventura Avenue. Later, other little houses were built for oil field workers.

My wife and I were fortunate enough to obtain a cute little house here for our retirement. Our wonderfully lush lot is the culmination of half a century of nurturing by the former owners. Casitas Springs is a weather-perfect scenic wonderland. We love it here.

The best part is the people. We find ourselves surrounded by a wonderfully diverse group--a grand melting pot. Casitas Springs is fashioned from interesting folks of all races, ethnicities, economic levels, ages and skills.

There's just one downside: 28,000 cars a day drive by our home on California 33, an average of three vehicles every four seconds during peak periods. This makes coming and going extremely difficult and unsafe, not to mention the health hazards of breathing the exhaust of so many cars a day.

Even walking is a risk. Some people do not let their children go to the store for fear of the traffic. Last Halloween, we got no trick-or-treaters, although we have neighbor children all around. It is simply too dangerous to allow children on this street at night.

The school bus does not stop on Ventura Avenue because that would mean halting traffic in both directions. Thus every day the children have to walk on this unsafe street over to Nye Road to catch their bus.

After a letter carrier was permanently disabled while delivering mail here, the U. S. Postal Service set up group mailboxes to reduce stops to only one for every 12 homes. The Postal Service wrote a letter to support our bypass plea.

Simply put, the problem is that 28,000 cars a day should never go through a residential community. We need a bypass to move this mass of vehicles around our community. We need it as soon as possible--before you or I or a friend is killed or disabled.

You might expect great sympathy for our traffic situation, right? Think again.

Some people seem to feel that Casitas Springs residents are second-class citizens. I can almost hear you say, "But this is America. We have no second-class citizens!" That's what I would have thought too. Read on.

Despite witheringly constant traffic, numerous accidents, general knowledge of the problem and numerous attempts to get some action, until recently, nothing has even been in the works.

Oh, yes, back in the 1960s, a four-lane bypass was scheduled. But faced with opposition from those who feared that it could lead to growth in growth-averse Ojai, the plan was killed. That was more than 30 years ago and still nothing has been done. Why?

It seems that some in Ojai like having this living buffer to expansion. Never mind that it is unsafe for Casitas Springs residents. Several callers--claiming to be on our side--have suggested bulldozing our houses as a solution. This is my home! Imagine suggesting such a plan for first-class citizens. How about bulldozing Ojai homes?

In 1994, Caltrans offered plans to handle the traffic. Its alternatives seemed to compete with each other to see which could be the rudest to the residents.

One would have widened the road to four lanes--cutting down trees and wiping out homes and yards. Another introduced Nye Road to the vehicular onslaught by making it one-way southbound. A third plan was for a four-lane road that traipsed carelessly through lot lines, thus threatening another part of our community.

All we need is a simple two- to three-mile-long two-lane bypass over basically level ground on an existing easement. Why is that so difficult?

The two-lane alternative would solve our problem, have far less environmental impact and attract much less resistance. However, Caltrans officials have said they would not consider "building a congested road"--even if it would solve our problem.

When we put up poetry signs to gently inform people of our plight, Caltrans took them down, saying they considered them advertisements. We seem to remember lots of campaign signs staying up for months. Measure O, anyone?

So we yield to the problems of Ojai and Caltrans, but the consensus seems to be that Casitas Springs' problems can wait.

Time and again, we seem to be considered second-class citizens. Fortunately, Caltrans has recently "found" some money to make an engineering study of a two-lane Casitas bypass. Was this a result of recent pressure by our Assn. to Bypass Casitas? We think so.

Is this another "study" that will not lead to a bypass? We hope not.

You should know that the first-class citizens in the little houses of Casitas Springs need a bypass now. We are watching closely and are not about to go away.

Wednesday, February 28, 2001

Caltrans considers freeway

Thoroughfare from YC to Butte County line being explored

Harold Kruger

Appeal-Democrat

Published Wednesday, February 28, 2001

Caltrans is exploring two "long-term planning concepts" to create a Highway 99 freeway from Yuba City to the Butte County line.

The options include a full freeway through Yuba City with a bypass around Live Oak or a bypass around both Yuba City and Live Oak, according to Caltrans documents.

The freeway through Yuba City would have interchanges at Lincoln, Franklin and Pease roads and at Highway 20. Grade separations would be at Smith, Richland and Hunn roads, Bridge Street and at the railroad crossing in Yuba City.

The freeway around Live Oak would use the existing Caltrans right of way.

The other alternative, bypassing both cities, would begin at the third Feather River Bridge crossing at Highway 99 and continue to the Butte County line. Interchanges would be at George Washington Boulevard and the 99/20 junction.

Caltrans envisions as interim improvements upgrading Highway 99 to seven lanes - three in each direction with a median lane - from Bogue Road to Highway 20, continuing with five lanes - two in each direction with a median lane - from Lomo Crossing to the county line.

The existing freeway between Highway 20 and Lomo would remain the same.

Caltrans hopes to release a project study report about the freeway from Yuba City to the Butte County line in July. Additional bypass alignments may be examined during environmental studies.

"Some people get the impression that once we do the PSR that's the final scope of the project," said Caltrans Project Manager Gary Sidhu. "That's not the case here."

Costs for this freeway aren't known and no timetable beyond the PSR has been set.

Sidhu had expected to outline these and other projects Tuesday night during a joint meeting of Sutter County supervisors and the Yuba City City Council.

But Supervisor Casey Kroon opened the study session by announcing it was canceled.

Kroon explained that he thought the meeting was supposed to address how changes to Highway 99 would affect Yuba City's sphere of influence.

"It was not the intention this evening to talk about Live Oak. It wasn't the intention to talk about a bridge, or the alignment of it. We merely wanted to know how to plan the sphere. When I came here, I noticed that the notice talked about the Live Oak bypass. It talked about the bridge. I had to apologize to city of Live Oak council members because they were not notified."

The supervisors' agenda notice listed the study session as "third bridge across the Feather River and Highway 99."

Sidhu still made a presentation, albeit shorter than he had expected.

He said a draft environmental study for the third Feather River Bridge will be ready in mid-2003.

Currently, four alignments are under study for the bridge. Sidhu said one of those routes, Lincoln Road to Erle Road, may be dropped, if federal agencies give their written OK.

Supervisor Joan Bechtel noted that many people in the audience of about 50 were opposed to the bridge's Bogue Road-Erle Road alignment.

"The real issue is how do we get the city and county to change their position, which appears to be set in stone," said John Sanbrook, a Bogue-Erle critic. "They don't care what's happened in the last 12 years."

Both the supervisors and the City Council have endorsed Bogue-Erle, even as Caltrans continues its studies.

"Everyone is concerned. If I live in some area and the alignment is coming through my neighborhood, I'm concerned, too," Sidhu said. "They can write a letter (to Caltrans) any time. We welcome comments."

Sidhu acknowledged it's getting tougher and tougher for Caltrans to plan highway projects.

"There are so many things we don't have control over, like the federal regulatory agencies. We have to comply with their requirements," he said.

Election to be first time for 710 vote

By Elizabeth Lee

Staff Writer

PASADENA -- For Pasadena voters, Tuesday's election represents an historic shift of the debate over the 710 freeway from the courtrooms to the court of public opinion.

And with less than a week before the election, the campaigns for competing ballot Measures A and C could spend more than $100,000 to sway the jury.

This will be the first election in the history of Pasadena in which residents can vote on the long-delayed 710.

"It should have been completed so many years ago," said Ann Hight, a Pasadena resident who is campaigning for Measure A, an initiative supporting the freeway.

Like other freeway advocates, Hight thought the project would finally happen when the federal government signed the Record of Decision approving it in 1998.

But political opposition to the 710 has grown stronger than ever --culminating in the Pasadena City Council's 5-3 vote last April to reverse its longstanding support of the freeway.

Technically, Pasadena doesn't control whether the freeway gets built --that's up to regional, state and federal authorities. The fate of the 710 also hinges on a court battle being waged by South Pasadena and Caltrans, which Pasadena has not participated in.

But an expression of citywide support for the freeway is crucial, said Hight, who said the council's opposition to the 710 allowed Bogaard to lobby state legislators to kill the project last summer.

"The impact (of Measure A) will be that we don't have city officials going up to Sacramento trying to stop it, because it will not be city policy," Hight said. "That's what Bogaard did. We've never had that in the history of Pasadena. It's just incomprehensible."

Bogaard could not be reached for comment Tuesday because he had flown to Washington, D.C. to meet with federal officials on issues including California's power crisis.

City Manager Cynthia Kurtz said the mayor was also scheduled to meet with officials on funding priorities including areas like transportation, but she was unaware of any discussions he had planned on the 710.

'Bad for Pasadena' Freeway opponents on the council, including Bogaard, say the 710 is not a solution to the city's traffic congestion.

"It is illusory and it will never be built," Bogaard said in an earlier interview. "And, two, it's bad for Pasadena.

"It might serve Long Beach. It might serve the San Joaquin Valley. But it will not serve Pasadena's interests," Bogaard said.

Depending on whether they agree, voters have one of two choices in Tuesday's election:

-- Measure A would state the city's official position as supporting completion of the Long Beach (710) Freeway extension, a 4.5 mile stretch of road that would connect the San Bernardino (10) and Foothill (210) freeways.

-- Measure C would state the city does not take a position on the 710 at all and calls for the creation of a citywide traffic management plan.

Measure C also contains a provision that would negate Measure A if C passes with more votes.

Under Measure C, the city would be prohibited from taking a position on the 710 until the traffic plan is finished.

"After it's completed, I believe the council could then take a position," Kurtz said.

The council would also have to wait until traffic mitigation efforts required by the Record of Decision are completed.

Stalwarts of the 710 refer to C as a "Trojan Horse."

"It's just simply a political ploy to try to negate what happens with Proposition A," City Councilwoman Joyce Streator said.

They're also bitter that a 5-3 council majority voted to put C on the ballot in December -- after the same majority refused to put A on the ballot, making freeway supporters gather 8,000 signatures to qualify the initiative.

'Really an alternative' City Councilman Steve Madison, who introduced Measure C in December, also initiated the council's decision last year to reverse its support of the freeway. But he says he then believed, as he does now, that focusing on the 710 is counterproductive.

"I really respectfully disagree with that," Madison said of the "Trojan Horse" accusation. A traffic mitigation plan will ensure the city has a way of dealing with the upcoming wave of development, he said.

"This is really an alternative. I said (last year) we need to move forward," Madison said. "We need to focus elsewhere."

After the council's vote last year, freeway supporters accused the council of not representing their constituents' views on the freeway, and vowed to let voters have the last word.

To freeway foe Lorna Moore, much of the anger came not from constituents but from one of Pasadena's neighbors to the south, a city that has consistently supported the 710.

"The city of Alhambra was upset about that," Moore told residents of east Pasadena at a neighborhood meeting Monday.

She says the battle over the two measures has been stacked from the beginning because heavily funded outside interests want to see the freeway finished.

But pro-freeway lobbyist Nat Read, who is running the campaign for Measure A, said the city of Alhambra is legally barred from participating in another city's campaign.

A small number of individuals from Alhambra have participated, he said. Read said the number was so low as to be "virtually zero.

"I'm sure there were fewer people from Alhambra involved in this election than from South Pasadena," Read said.

The 710 supporters ended up spending more than $50,000 to qualify Measure A, using paid signature-gatherers. They have raised nearly $40,000 more to campaign for it. Supporters of C, meanwhile, had raised about $63,000 as of last week.

Modified: March 11, 2001.