MONTEREY COUNTY
April 10, 2018
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
STATE ROUTE 1 CLIMBING LANE AT RIO ROAD
CARMEL, CA–The Monterey County Resource Management Agency (RMA) is managing the construction of the Highway 1 Climbing Lane Project, under permit from Caltrans. The County is aware of the current traffic delays and is working closely with Caltrans and the contractor to improve the situation. The construction activities will continue to affect traffic flow for the duration of the project, however the County in coordination with Caltrans is actively working on minimizing traffic delays.
Construction work hours are normally from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. with occasional overnight roadwork between 9:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. The project is five months in duration and is slated to be complete at the end of August.
The State Route 1 Climbing Lane Project consists of widening State Route 1 (SR-1) on the eastside, to provide a second northbound lane and installation of new signal poles at the SR-1/Rio Road and SR-1/Carmel Valley Road intersections. Recent activities involve placing temporary concrete barriers along the project site. This will remain in place until after the final paving is complete on SR-1. All interim traffic measures are necessary to maximize public safety, while facilitating traffic flows as best possible, while construction crews work behind the barriers.
Thank you for your patience. Additional information can be found at:
http://www.tamcmonterey.org/cone-zone-report-7/
http://dot.ca.gov/dist05/paffairs/monterey/conezone_report.pdf
For more information, please contact Christine Poe, Management Analyst II at PoeC@co.monterey.ca.us or at (831)755-5025.
Why not night construction?
Just received from a reader:
“Just went through Crossroads and they’ve added a left hand turn as you were going north up one. This along with lights seem to be so reasonably a lot of traffic just move to flow much more smoothly. Backed up just to the bridge and made it through in a couple of minutes. Maybe all this talking to various people made a difference. Thank you”
https://bigsurkate.blog
The solution is not hard to figure out. Currently traffic from the south flows through the Rio Rd light only about 20% of the time. A traffic cop who upped that to 30% or 40% would make an enormous difference…Bob
To add to what the reader said.
I went through there early this afternoon (around 1:30pm) and there is indeed now a fairly short left turn lane coming north on 1 at Rio Road. They’ve also changed the lights so that the two left turn lanes on 1 (north and south) go at the same time and then the main lanes go (similar to how it was with the regular lights) – hopefully that’ll help, though it was starting to back up a bit when I did go through.
Wake up, OASN.. Kate,
SLO/KT: “Major progress’ seen at Mud Creek on Hwy. 1, despite rain”
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/community/cambrian/article208473389.html
What I do not understand is why they have to pick the busiest time of the year to do this work. With the Winter being as dry as it was not sure why they could not have started in January. I feel sorry for all of the people who work down here in Big Sur that travel North to go home each day.
Thank you for the update, Tim.
https://bigsurkate.blog
Great timing with Big Sur being the second most popular travel destination in America for 2018. I don’t get why people making decisions in our County can’t see we are on an unsustainable path. The madness that truly started a handful of years ago is going to get so much worse unless they start backing off the marketing campaign of Big Sur and the Monterey Peninsula . What used to be a beautiful and traffic free community to live is being destroyed because all that matters to so many is having more people and development which equals more tax revenue and jobs!
Kate is right on. Big Sur is a destination. The entire peninsula is heavily over advertised. Given the results of the establishments interest in tourist dollars, the least the County can do is provide adequate attention and resources to see that those living or working down the coast are not “trapped” by the ridiculous timing of this project. I concede that there is never a good time to take on a project of this magnitude, but the Coast South always seems to come out on the short end of the stick when planning. The goose that lays the Golden egg (Big Sur) will have one hell of a time in the future trying to maintain the quality of life that makes the place special…unique.