Caltrans' New Highway 1 Bridge Open

Still very much a work in progress, the new San Pedro Creek Bridge on Highway 1 in Pacifica opened August 7, with some equipment in place and temporary concrete block guardrails. But the stoplights at Linda Mar need to be retimed, among other needed improvements. For instance, on Sunday northbound traffic was backed up from Linda Mar all the way down to Moss Beach. Ahem, Caltrans, yet another misstep. The ranks of opponents and skeptics of highway widening grew by leaps and bounds this past week, starting with the huge traffic jam on August 3, which Caltrans blamed on a lost email, and ending with this latest fubar of a bridge opening. Not a good showing at all by the state transportation agency. Where is the accountability? We suggest contacting Caltrans by calling, writing, or visiting in person at the Caltrans trailers in the Linda Mar park-and-ride lot. (Pacifica.city photos)

Comments

[Bob Pilgrim]

The topic of the traffic lights and the antics of Caltrans constitutes only one minor symptom, among a constellation of symptoms. The symptoms make up the political malignancy that’s existent and interlocked with Caltrans at the state, county, and local levels. These symptoms are bound and coordinated by the Washington fascist corporate state as it puppeteers Sacramento’s agency of highway carnage, a.k.a. Caltrans. Why waste time treating symptoms when original causes are left untreated?

[Laurie Soca]

In the top photo, you can just see the sign for Pacifica's nomination for finalist in scenic small towns.

If Caltrans' proposed widening of a segment of Highway 1 in Pacifica goes forward, with all the cement creating a highway wider than the 280 freeway, Pacifica will be up for "most cemented-over small town."

[thechamberdoesntmatter]

Don't worry, be happy.

[Karen]

Anyone who was on the road this afternoon knows Caltrans still has a lot of work to do to time the lights. On a foggy afternoon, traffic was backed up into Moss Beach for hours northbound. It took 50 minutes for us to go from Moss Beach to Linda Mar around 5 p.m. All traffic was moving smoothly after the Linda Mar traffic light. Hate to think what it might be like tomorrow morning at rush hour. Also, there need to be more warnings as you come out of the tunnel northbound that traffic may be backed up, otherwise there will be a lot of accidents.

[big banker]

Crab Sandwich:

Keep eating them, next time with extra mayo!

[Jay Bird]

"Caltrans may have had its feelings hurt when it was dragged into litigation." Given its performance elsewhere and the amount of taxpayer money wasted, Caltrans should be used to it.

///////// Caltrans could, but does not, consider the environmental impact of its "solutions": "Making cement means making pollution, in the form of carbon dioxide emissions."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/26/business/worldbusiness/26cement.html

///////// Why creating global warming pollution with a local highway segment is worth stopping:

"Ultimately, global warming will impact life on Earth in many ways, but the extent of the change is largely up to us. Scientists have shown that human emissions of greenhouse gases are pushing global temperatures up, and many aspects of climate are responding to the warming in the way that scientists predicted they would. This offers hope. Since people are causing global warming, people can mitigate global warming, if they act in time. Greenhouse gases are long-lived, so the planet will continue to warm and changes will continue to happen far into the future, but the degree to which global warming changes life on Earth depends on our decisions now." -- NASA
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/GlobalWarming/page6.php

/////////////////\ But NASA sugar-coats the results:
http://globalwarming.berrens.nl/globalwarming.htm

[Crab Sandwich at Nick's]

And we never knew you were the be-all and end-all of all things Caltrans, "Big Banker!"

[b I g banker]

Consider that this project should have been completed at the same time as the Devil's Slide tunnel. I never knew Pacifica had so many highway contractors, traffic engineers, and traffic planning experts.

Anything that does away with the detour IS all good to me.

Pacifica has 99 problems besides Caltrans and Highway 1.

Consider that Caltrans repaves Highway 80 and Highway 50 going over the Sierra with much less of a traffic problem. It pours 8-12 inches on concrete then lets it dry and then pours 2-4 inches of asphalt. One lane of traffic and traffic switching back and forth is far less confusing than our Highway 1 detour.

Actually, it is also repaving and adding lanes through 8 miles of Highway 80 through Sacramento, with switchbacks. With much less of a problem than Pacifica's detour.

I think Caltrans may have had its feelings hurt when it was dragged into litigation.

[Jay Bird]

Looks like four lanes are there -- or are easily restriped to be four lanes, 2 in each direction:
http://www.pacifica.city/images/hwy1_diagram.jpg#sthash.3ndNfOWe.dpuf

Gosh -- could Caltrans be building a freeway down the coast after all?

[Karen Rosenstein]

Good news, bad news.

Bridge is open cuz I just drove over it and back this afternoon.

Here's the bad news. Southbound, the sign telling you which lane to be in to go across the bridge is not until you are past the Crespi light, thus requiring lots of people to play the lane change game, slowing things down, especially now that we are "trained" to use the right lane to go south.

In addition, the left-turn lanes were backed up so much that I needed to go around that in the right lane and come back into the left lane to continue southbound.

Northbound, there is only one lane across the bridge and the highway doesn't widen up till two car lengths from Linda Mar. Thus, **at 3:30 p.m.** traffic was backed up onto the hill coming into Pacifica as far as I could see. Further complicating things, the northbound light is not long and only about 20 cars made it through.

Thus, while the bridge is "open," I am confident that traffic on the weekends will still be messy for a while as we sort through the changes, especially the southbound ones. DARN!

[todd bray]

No. They faked it. Still much to do, but this weekend should be better!

[www.Pacifica.city]

There is zero chance this bridge will open on schedule for today, August 6, 2015.

As of 6:23 a.m., no lane striping or even guard rails to prevent cars from plunging onto the temporary detour.

http://www.pacifica.city/images/san_pedro_bridge_1_600.jpg

http://www.pacifica.city/images/san_pedro_bridge_2_600.jpg

[www.Pacifica.city]

This was the original Caltrans diagram on what would be achieved:

www.pacifica.city/images/hwy1_diagram.jpg