Headlines About California Highways – May 2024

It’s been a month, hasn’t it.

The biggest news is that my domain hosting site, Westhost, moved from cpanel to stackCP. In doing so, they broke a number of things. The first problem was with the main site (cahighways.org), which has its DNS records on a different host (because it dates back to before Westhost, when I was on Pacificnet Z”L). After a 5 hour wait on support chat regarding certificate problems for the main site (cahighways.org), they gave me advice to fix it (switch to their name servers)… but that broke things further. I ultimately got that fixed by restoring most settings, and a suitable application of money to buy my own site certificate as opposed to using their free certificate. So cahighways.org seems to be fixed.

The domain for the podcast (caroutebyroute.org) is a different story. That actually has its DNS records at Westhost. I’ve moved it to their name servers, and I thought I set it to the right IP addresses, but clearly didn’t as the site is showing as suspended. I sat in a different chat support queue for 5 hours on Thursday before giving up, and have been sitting in queue today (for over 6 hours, but I’m up to #1 …). I’m not sure if this will be fixed by the time I post this, so links to caroutebyroute.org may not work.

Needless to say, this lack of technical support from a once excellent host has me seriously thinking about jumping ship, once the ship is moving again. Suggestions on suitable hosts are welcome.

In any case, it is the start of a new month, and that means headlines. For those unfamiliar, this post generally contains headlines about California Highways that I’ve seen over the last month. It also serves as fodder for the updates to my California Highways site, so there are also other pages and things I’ve seen that I wanted to remember for the site updates. Lastly, the post also includes some things that I think would be of peripheral interest to my highway-obsessed highway-interested readers. Speaking of updates to the California Highways site: those are mostly done—I just need to incorporate this headline post, and hopefully I can upload to the new Westhost server for the main site (if SFTP works).

So what has happened in May? In terms of shows, we had three: Hands on a Hardbody at Charles Stewart Howard Playhouse; Girl From The North Country at Broadway in Hollywood; and The Play That Goes Wrong at Canyon Theatre Guild. Hardbody is closed. North Country is on tour, and should be avoided at all costs. Goes Wrong is still playing in Saugus until the end of June, and is well worth seeing.

I’m also still looking for opinions on Medicare Advantage plus Medicare Supplement Plans: specifically, the Anthem Medicare Plus PPO with Senior Rx Plus Medicare Advantage Plan (as Implemented for Aerospace Retireees: See (1) Get to Know Your Group Plan; (2) Plan Summary; (3) last year’s Open Enrollment Guide) vs. a Medicare Supplement Plan.

The podcast continues apace. The last episode for Season 2 dropped in May. I’ve started writing Season 3, but it is going slow. Route 3 and the first episode on Route 4 is done. I’ll get back to writing episodes once the highway updates are posted. Episode 2.07 prompted a friend at Caltrans to offer to do an interview to talk about Fastrak and tolling in California; we’ll coordinate that as a bonus episode during the Season 2/3 break. I’m hoping to talk not just about Fastrak and tolling, but all those fake license plates going around, and placement of the transponder (article in the headlines)—however, I’m having trouble getting the recording scheduled. We also hope to do a bonus episode on Auto Trails. Please tell your friends about the podcast, “like”, “♥”, or “favorite” it, and give it a rating in your favorite podcatcher. Yes, the sound quality of the episodes does get better — we were learning. As always, you can keep up with the show at the podcast’s forever home at https://www.caroutebyroute.org (once it comes back) , the show’s page on Spotify for Podcasters, or you can subscribe through your favorite podcatching app or via the RSS feeds (CARxR, Spotify for Podcasters) . The following episodes have been posted this month:

• CA RxR 2.12: Hills and Mountains (Glendale and Angeles National Forest). Episode 2.12 of California Highways: Route by Route is the second of two episodes on Route 2. In this episode, we complete our exploration of Route 2. This time, we focus on the segments in Glendale and through the Angeles National Forest, roughly from US 101 to Route 138. We talk about the pre-freeway routing, the history of the Glendale Freeway, the proposals for an Angeles Forest Freeway, and the history of Angeles Crest Highway. (Spotify for Podcasters)

Well, you should now be up to date. Here are the headlines that I found about California’s highways for May.

Key

[Ħ Historical information | ＄ Paywalls, ＄＄ really obnoxious paywalls, and ∅ other annoying restrictions. I’m no longer going to list the paper names, as I’m including them in the headlines now. Note: For ＄ paywalls, sometimes the only way is incognito mode, grabbing the text before the paywall shows, and pasting into an editor. See this article for more tips on bypassing paywalls. indicates an primarily audio article. indicates a primarily video article. ]

Highway Headlines

• Two new roundabouts finished in the Montecito-Santa Barbara area | News Channel 3-12 (KEYT). Two roundabouts have been finished for commuters in Montecito and Santa Barbara to ease what were often slower travel points where stop signs were in place. One is on Olive Mill Road at Coast Village Road and connects with ramps for Highway 101 and also a link to North Jameson Lane. The other is on San Ysidro Road a block away at North Jameson Lane and Highway 101. The projects have been a joint effort for Cal Trans, the County of Santa Barbara, the City of Santa Barbara and the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments. There were many community meetings prior to the construction and information provided to the community throughout the process.
• ＄＄ Vincent Thomas Bridge project draws subdued response in first public hearing – Daily News (Daily News). Content preview blocked by paywall.
• ＄ Gov. Newsom declares emergency for storm-damaged Topanga Canyon (Los Angeles Times). Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency Friday to help fund badly needed repairs of roads battered during this year’s storms, including scenic Topanga Canyon Boulevard that was blocked by millions of pounds of debris. The governor’s action comes two weeks after California Department of Transportation officials said the massive, 300-foot-tall landslide that covered Topanga Canyon Boulevard in March with mud and rocks would not be cleared until fall, “if all things go well.” The proclamation enables Caltrans to request funding from the Federal Highway Administration’s Emergency Relief Program, which could cover up to 100% of the repairs, according to the governor’s office.
• Gov. Newsom says Highway 1 repairs will be completed by Memorial Day weekend (KSBW). Highway 1 south of Rocky Creek Bridge opened to the public on Friday. The road reopened to all travelers under one-way traffic control at 6:30 a.m. on Friday. The area was closed since the end of March due to a slip-out that sent a chunk of the road into the ocean.  Newsom said that Caltrans crews worked overtime to make reopening on Friday morning possible. This is eight days faster than originally predicted “Crews have been working day and night to quickly repair the damage to Highway 1 caused by recent storms, which has disrupted the lives of individuals living in and around Big Sur – limiting access to the area and hampering tourism. Thanks to the diligent efforts, traffic will resume eight days ahead of schedule – bringing relief and a sense of normalcy back to one of California’s most iconic coastal communities,” Newsom said.
• ＄ Bay Bridge to be relit, with sturdier lights, and twice as many (Los Angeles Times). In the decade after they went up, the 25,000 LED lights illuminating the western side of the Bay Bridge endured a brutal pounding. “It’s the salty air, the wind, the fog, the rain, the 24-7 vibrations on the bridge, lightning strikes, car grit and grime — and more,” said Ben Davis, founder of the San Francisco nonprofit behind the light installation that went up in 2013. With the lights deteriorating faster than they could be fixed, Davis asked to turn them off in 2023, leaving what he calls “a hole in the night sky” for the last year.
• Highway 37-Fairgrounds Drive project start just 2 months away (Daily Republic). The Solano Transportation Authority is expected to begin construction in July on the $22.9 million Highway 37/Fairgrounds Drive Interchange Project. In the meantime, Solano County has paused its discussions with Solano360 master developer, Industrial Realty Group LLC, including talks on possible modifications to its submitted plan that includes a request to increase the number of residential units from 50 to 500. The county noted in an email, citing James Besek, director of the Department of Resource Management and longtime Solano360 planning member, it is still in discussions with the state Department of Housing and Community Development regarding whether the unused areas of the fairgrounds property, minus the actual fair footprint, should be considered surplus property as defined by the Surplus Land Act.
• 55-Hour Ortega Highway Closure Set As Crews Work On Historic Bridge (MSN/Patch). The Ortega Highway (state Route 74) is scheduled for a full closure this weekend as Caltrans contractor crews continue retrofitting the historic Morrill Canyon Bridge in Riverside County. The highway will be closed in both directions near El Cariso, between the Candy Store and Tenaja Truck Trail, from 10 p.m. May 3 to 6 a.m. May 6, according to Caltrans. Drivers heading east from Orange County will not be permitted through the work zone. Residents west of Tenaja Truck Trial, including Ortega Oaks RV Park and Campground and the Candy Store, will have westbound highway access, and residents east of Tenaja Truck Trail will have eastbound access.
• Caltrans: Highway repair project in Kern River Canyon should be done by early August (Yahoo/Bakersfield Californian). Caltrans still refers to it an “emergency repair project.” But nearly a year after cracks in the asphalt were first spotted on Highway 178 in the Kern River Canyon, and five months after a Caltrans contractor began work on the project, the one-way traffic control and heavy equipment operators remain in place even as the completion of the project still appears to be months away. Ahron Hakimi, executive director of Kern Council of Governments, which focuses on countywide transportation matters, is frustrated that the state agency is still slugging away at the repair project, after Caltrans estimated it would be done in April.
• ＄ A Highway Split Their Community. Efforts to Fix That Face Opposition (The New York Times). Around 6:30 every morning, David Richardson is usually awakened by the swelling sound of traffic. Steps from his front yard, thousands of cars rumble past each day as they travel along the Kensington Expressway, an expansive six-lane highway that slices through his neighborhood on Buffalo’s East Side. The expressway, built in the 1950s and ’60s to move cars faster between downtown Buffalo and its suburbs, has long depressed property values and stifled economic development in this low-income and predominantly Black community. It has also posed a physical barrier, making it harder for residents to reach grocery stores and parks.

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