A “carmageddon” of epic proportions will challenge San Joaquin Valley drivers seeking to cool off in the summer heat by heading to Monterey or Santa Cruz.
As recently detailed by Fresno Bee columnist Marek Warszawski, plans are underway to reduce Highway 152 — the main artery from Los Baños to Highway 101 and the coast — from four lanes to a single lane in each direction at the San Luis Reservoir.
The reason? So the dam at the storage facility can be enlarged and hold more water in heavy rain years, which would benefit residents and farmers throughout in the state.
The trouble, Warszawski explained, is how the higher water level of the bigger lake will threaten to inundate a stretch of the highway alongside the dam. For that reason, the roadway needs to be made higher in that section, and that will require lane closures.
According to Caltrans, between 35,000 and 38,500 vehicles traveled on Highway 152 at the reservoir in 2021, the most recent data available. The figures represent annual average daily trips. At the peak, daily trips were well past 40,000 vehicles. The peak hour figure was 3,600.
Opinion
Take away half of the road’s capacity, and it does not take a rocket scientist to see that a gigantic traffic mess will result. How do you say gridlock?
This road work is not supposed to begin until 2028, so there is no need to push the panic button just yet.
But Caltrans, the counties of Merced and Santa Clara (which meet at the reservoir) and the city of Los Baños are not helping matters by being silent on this planned traffic jam.
Residents of Los Baños, in particular, will be impacted, as many newcomers have located there from Silicon Valley while keeping their jobs in the San José area. These commuters depend on a free-flowing Highway 152 to get to work on time, and then back home in the afternoons and evenings.
But there is no notice about the planned road work on the city of Los Baños’ website. Nor is there any mention on the website of the Merced County Association of Governments, an agency that handles transportation planning.
For its part, Caltrans says it will put up signs to warn motorists, but they will go up just a month before the road work starts. A traffic control plan has not been completed.
That said, Caltrans spokesman Brian Hooker said the agency “will be engaged in a series of public outreach measures to inform motorists of the construction schedule and associated traffic impacts. These public outreach measures may involve issuing public service announcements, encouraging alternative routes and carpooling whereas possible, sending out media/press advisories and project mailers, issuing weekly traffic advisories (socials, website, email blasts), holding public workshops, and providing a project website where the public can learn more about the project and construction schedule.”
Too quiet
Deborah Lewis, a member of the Los Baños City Council, says neither Caltrans nor the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which owns the dam at San Luis Reservoir, have said much about the roadway project to date. She does not want commuters to be surprised.
Jesse Torrez is one of those daily drivers. He told Warszawski that he leaves Los Baños around 4 a.m. to get to his job in San José on time. Then he leaves at 2 p.m. and comes back to Los Baños, where he stops at a Starbucks coffee shop and opens his laptop computer for a final few hours of work.
Warszawski referenced bottlenecks created by single lanes in the construction zone projected to last up to one year. “That is going to have a huge impact on a lot of people’s lifestyles,” Torrez told him. “My schedule is my schedule. I don’t have any more hours left to give.”
Greater ridesharing?
The various levels of government should combine forces to land grants that could, in turn, fund ridesharing services so Torrez and others in Los Baños could at least be passengers in a bus or van and do work while traveling to and from their jobs in Silicon Valley.
Companies in that region can also allow their employees who can work remotely to do just that.
Fresno County residents wanting to visit the coast should forget making it a day trip. Instead, motorists from Fresno can head to Paso Robles and then take Highway 101 north to get to Monterey and Santa Cruz. That is not ideal, but it would be an easier drive than navigating country roads never meant for high traffic volumes, like Highway 198, which winds through the hills from Coalinga to King City.
“Carmageddon” was the term used to describe the expected traffic nightmare along the 405 Freeway in Los Angeles when it had to be shut down over two weekends in 2011 for roadwork and a bridge replacement. The highway is one of the most heavily used roads in the world. So a major public relations effort was mounted to alert drivers of what was to come.
The result? Many Angelenos stayed home, and the expected gridlock did not occur.
The situation involving Highway 152 is different. But with good planning and communication, which need to start now, impacts can be lessened. Here is hoping.