Jun 28 2024
Traffic
As far as the eye can see
Traffic is not usually one of my challenges, though I drive 50 miles round-trip to work and back, five days a week. I’m usually more concerned with wildlife and visibility than gridlock. But now is the summer of our discontent. One of the eleven (yes, that’s 11) bridges I cross to get to work is being worked on for no good reason.
This mess started in the spring, with 300 trees being summarily destroyed, leaving a huge scar on the eastern side of the road, and no visible way of stopping it from becoming a gigantic mudslide when the rains start again. I’ll let a disgruntled writer on the local message boards fill you in:
This disgusting project is being done in order to widen Jack Peters Creek Bridge in order to add a bicycle lane, a safety barrier for that lane & a walkway on the west side for pedestrians. This is being done in order to facilitate bicycle tourists & pedestrians traveling from the Mendocino headlands to the Russian Gulch headlands. The walkway will also enable people to take photos of the Pacific Ocean more safely from the bridge.
The structural integrity of the bridge is, as it was explained to me by Cal Trans reps, not endangered or compromised. It is in good shape, although, of course, bridge maintenance is always a priority. This project is apparently ALL about servicing a tiny, greedy, gluttonous & elitist group of biking tourists, since Route 1 is designated an official “Scenic Route”.
In order to widen the bridge, it is having to be moved a bit to the west. In order to do this it is necessary to move some of the road itself, both north and south of the bridge. In order to do this, trees have to be removed & the slope cut back on the highway right-of-way. Since very large machinery is needed for construction, a new pole for the electrical lines going into Mendocino had to be installed. This new pole had to be extra tall in order to accommodate the machinery. I guess that anyone taking another meaningless selfie from the bridge will simply shoot to the side of it.
Tourist season has made traffic worse than ever, and since so many cars are backed up, when you get to where there are two lanes and it’s your chance to get past the people driving 30 on the highway, you can’t get past them all before the road narrows to one doomed lane again.
I am sorry to say that this is slated to go until September 2025. Yes, the end of NEXT YEAR. In the meantime, I have to find some way of being more zen about sitting in traffic. Or less homicidal.
A YEAR AGO: Megan was recovering from surgery and Jonathan was on the road.
FIVE YEARS AGO: Dodge defenestrates.
TEN YEARS AGO: A reading at the local bookstore.
FIFTEEN YEARS AGO: A rude awakening
TWENTY YEARS AGO: Enjoying some eavesdropping.
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