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A “carmageddon” of epic proportions will problem San Joaquin Valley drivers in search of to chill off in the summertime warmth by heading to Monterey or Santa Cruz.
As recently detailed by Fresno Bee columnist Marek Warszawski, plans are underway to cut back Freeway 152 — the principle artery from Los Baños to Freeway 101 and the coast — from 4 lanes to a single lane in every path on the San Luis Reservoir.
The explanation? So the dam on the storage facility might be enlarged and maintain extra water in heavy rain years, which might profit residents and farmers all through within the state.
The difficulty, Warszawski defined, is how the upper water degree of the larger lake will threaten to inundate a stretch of the freeway alongside the dam. For that motive, the roadway must be made greater in that part, and that may require lane closures.
According to Caltrans, between 35,000 and 38,500 automobiles traveled on Freeway 152 on the reservoir in 2021, the latest information obtainable. The figures symbolize annual common each day journeys. On the peak, each day journeys had been properly previous 40,000 automobiles. The height hour determine was 3,600.
Opinion
Take away half of the street’s capability, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see {that a} gigantic site visitors mess will consequence. How do you say gridlock?
This street work will not be supposed to start till 2028, so there is no such thing as a must push the panic button simply but.
However Caltrans, the counties of Merced and Santa Clara (which meet on the reservoir) and the town of Los Baños are usually not serving to issues by being silent on this deliberate site visitors jam.
Residents of Los Baños, specifically, can be impacted, as many newcomers have positioned there from Silicon Valley whereas protecting their jobs within the San José space. These commuters depend upon a free-flowing Freeway 152 to get to work on time, after which again house within the afternoons and evenings.
However there is no such thing as a discover in regards to the deliberate street work on the city of Los Baños’ website. Neither is there any point out on the web site of the Merced County Association of Governments, an company that handles transportation planning.
For its half, Caltrans says it can put up indicators to warn motorists, however they may go up only a month earlier than the street work begins. A site visitors management plan has not been accomplished.
That stated, Caltrans spokesman Brian Hooker stated the company “can be engaged in a sequence of public outreach measures to tell motorists of the development schedule and related site visitors impacts. These public outreach measures might contain issuing public service bulletins, encouraging various routes and carpooling whereas doable, sending out media/press advisories and mission mailers, issuing weekly site visitors advisories (socials, web site, electronic mail blasts), holding public workshops, and offering a mission web site the place the general public can be taught extra in regards to the mission and building schedule.”
Too quiet
Deborah Lewis, a member of the Los Baños Metropolis Council, says neither Caltrans nor the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which owns the dam at San Luis Reservoir, have stated a lot in regards to the roadway mission up to now. She doesn’t need commuters to be stunned.
Jesse Torrez is a kind of each day drivers. He instructed Warszawski that he leaves Los Baños round 4 a.m. to get to his job in San José on time. Then he leaves at 2 p.m. and comes again to Los Baños, the place he stops at a Starbucks espresso store and opens his laptop computer pc for a closing few hours of labor.
Warszawski referenced bottlenecks created by single lanes within the building zone projected to last as long as one yr. “That’s going to have a huge effect on lots of people’s life,” Torrez instructed him. “My schedule is my schedule. I don’t have any extra hours left to provide.”
Higher ridesharing?
The assorted ranges of presidency ought to mix forces to land grants that would, in flip, fund ridesharing providers so Torrez and others in Los Baños might at the least be passengers in a bus or van and do work whereas touring to and from their jobs in Silicon Valley.
Firms in that area can even enable their workers who can work remotely to do exactly that.
Fresno County residents wanting to go to the coast ought to overlook making it a day journey. As a substitute, motorists from Fresno can head to Paso Robles after which take Freeway 101 north to get to Monterey and Santa Cruz. That’s not superb, however it might be a neater drive than navigating nation roads by no means meant for prime site visitors volumes, like Freeway 198, which winds by means of the hills from Coalinga to King Metropolis.
“Carmageddon” was the time period used to explain the anticipated site visitors nightmare alongside the 405 Freeway in Los Angeles when it needed to be shut down over two weekends in 2011 for roadwork and a bridge alternative. The freeway is likely one of the most closely used roads on this planet. So a significant public relations effort was mounted to alert drivers of what was to return.
The consequence? Many Angelenos stayed house, and the anticipated gridlock didn’t happen.
The scenario involving Freeway 152 is completely different. However with good planning and communication, which want to start out now, impacts might be lessened. Right here is hoping.
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