State of California • Department of Transportation
TRAFFIC ADVISORY
Date: August 3, 2015
District 4 - Oakland
Contact: Gidget Navarro
Phone: 510-286-5574
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Lane Closure on State Route 1 in Pacifica Post Mile 42.290 to 42.133
San Mateo County- Caltrans maintenance crews will continue a paving operation, Tuesday, August 4, on State Route 1, in the northbound direction, at Post Mile 42. 290 to 42.133, between Fassler Avenue and Reina Del Mar Avenue in the city of Pacifica.
Paving will take place from 9:30 AM to 3:30 PM.
This paving operation started on August 3, and will be completed on August 4.
Motorist can expect a minimal delay. One lane will remain open to motorists during this operation. Please drive carefully and leave a safe traveling distance between your vehicle and the vehicle ahead of you.
For real-time traffic, click-on Caltrans Quick Maps at: http://quickmap.dot.ca.gov/
You can also follow us on Twitter at: https://mobile.twitter.com/CaltransD4
Caltrans appreciates your patience as we work to maintain our highways.
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Maybe you should find a better way to notify residents when you cause hours of delays for something that states 'minimal delays'. Possibly join the NextDoor app to send out alerts.. I'm stuck in the city now and neighbors are telling horror stories of being stuck HWY 1 for hours with no signage and crew running well over the forecasted time... You decided to close a major artery that is the only way in or out of town when you have another project that isn't even done yet that has been causing major traffic issues already. This whole thing has been poorly planned and executed.
ReplyDeleteMinimal?!?!?!
ReplyDeleteHOW ON EARTH WE WERE NOT INFORMED OF THIS CONSTRUCTION PREVIOUSLY? We are one way in and one way out. Accidents causing traffic are completely understandable, but ONE LANE of a two lane road being closed from 9am - ????? really seems like something that we should find out with some advanced notice! This is ABSURD! I saw the construction and traffic start to back up when I left this morning at 8:50!
My husband said it took him 3 hours to get home. I have to stay in SF with family bc being pregnant with a 3 year old, I can't sit in traffic for that long, especially unexpectedly! MINIMAL?1?!?!!?
Way to go, Caltrans folks. You're officially a joke.
ReplyDeleteIt took me 2.5 hours to get from Manor down Sharp Park to the Tunnel in Montara. That drive normally takes me 15 minutes. This is outrageous. I drove by the lane closure at 5:30 while the whole crew was taking a break. Absolutely INSANE. It must be nice to never get fired for complete incompetence.
ReplyDeleteOutrageous. You should be fired for this.
ReplyDeleteUnbelievable! Outrageous! Unacceptable! Absolutely rediculous! You're lack of planning is now our energy. You don't plan to fail you fall to plan! We were not notified of this closer! The times your had posted were not kept. No traffic control until after 6:30!? And you hire out to get the work done? They need to be working. As people drive watching 2 men work & 8 others just standing around, pretty frustrating! You need to research your contractors! Sure an accident slowed with down, still no excuse. Pull the cones up at the scheduled time. Let us get home to our families so we can take care of our responsibilities. Here's a thought, PAVE AT NIGHT! You are in an area that has very few residence to disturb may or may not be disturbed at night. And for the love of God ude some common sense.
ReplyDelete9 of you jokers out there. 7 standing and 2 actually doing work. Caltrans is the equivalent of an outdoor DMV.
ReplyDeleteWhat WERE you thinking when you decided to tie up traffic all morning and night with your lame construction? Why can't you do projects like this in the middle of the night when less drivers are on the road? This is an outrage!
ReplyDelete2 hours 45 minutes from Hwy 1 just north of the Manor exit, to Linda Mar Park and Ride. Construction was still in progress at 8:15 pm. Unbelievable.
ReplyDeleteThis is the worst management and planning I've seen for paving project not only in Pacifica but anywhere. It's taking me hours to get home. Hwy 1 is gridlocked. There's nowhere to for anyone to go. This is more than "Minimal wait time". Extremely disappointed in the management of this project. And the impact on drivers.
ReplyDeleteIt took me over 2 hours to get home this afternoon. I thought that was outrageous, but it took my wife 3! hours to get home. She just got here to our house in Linda Mar. Unbelievable! And you're going for a repeat performance tomorrow? Whoever scheduled this should be fired. I am hearing that Caltrans didn't even bother to notify the city of Pacifica.
ReplyDeleteBy far the most irresponsible acts I have ever witnessed. 2.5 hrs from Manor to Linda Mar. No warning. No police directing traffic. There was NO coordination with the City of Pacifica? The breakdown lanes in some areas are too narrow for emergency vehicles. I'm shocked no one ran out of gas. This totally reminds me of "Bridge Gate" in New Jersey. Caltrans have something against the City of Pacifica? People who are well informed in advance can plan. This was a blindside. People have to pick up kids, pets, show at appointments, events, etc. What the heck were you thinking? The Park Pacifica NextDoor site had 102 posts about this last time I checked. Many said the Caltrans workers were snoozing. I believe in meal and rest breaks, but couldn't they have been staggered? The Coastal communities deserve better than this.
ReplyDelete50 posts on Nextdoor Montara/Coastside. People still stating they are trapped on hwy one with no direction from anyone regarding side streets or detours.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely ridicules. Who ever is managing this project (Hwy1/Pacifica) should be fired. Per Mayor of Pacifica "CalTrans is waiting for more asphalt but the asphalt truck is stuck in traffic". Are you kidding me, who was in charge w/ the asphalt projections? The person who hired these outside contractors should be fired. No prior notification to Pacific residents, conducting such road work during peak hours is an amateurs mistake and the Pacifica residents had to may for such careless mistakes. I want to see repercussions.
ReplyDeleteAfter today's fiasco of a traffic nightmare, I suggest you postpone the work, for the safety of everyone involved. The residents should have been notified so that we could plan accordingly. Lives were rudely disrupted, and a good number of those involved children. If this work continues in the same manner tomorrow, a road riot is a very real possibility!
ReplyDeleteHorrendous Caltrans. Did you realize there is NO public transport or alternative means to get to Pacifica? And you told no one? Why wasn't this work done at night or why weren't we given advance notice ? I was stuck at 12:30 pm and waited in SF until 7:30 pm to leave. The police told me they were opening the other lane at 7:15. Didn't happen. I took 280 to 92 to 1 north and it took less time than my husband, stuck on 1 for 3 hours. Asphalt truck stuck in traffic - more evidence that this was poorly planned. You owe Pacificans an apology! And also, if you think this is going to make people vote for widening Highway 1 - and use this as an example - we are not that stupid!!!!
ReplyDeleteSo let me get this straight, we live in Pacifica, which only has a couple ways in and out, 2 lane roads in each direction and CalTrans decides to do construction and shut a lane down? Then they don't finish on schedule and it hits the commute time???? This is unacceptable! We should have been notified by CalTrans.You could have done it via NextDoor.com or the San Mateo County Alert System. In San Francisco, the police department puts out press releases for any major road closures that could cause traffic, but usually they are event-related. Not sure what, if any, notifications PPD received regarding this, but it is not their responsibility. It is CalTrans responsibility to notify everyone, including the police department. How long is this going to continue beyond today? I drove by and saw a long distance of the road empty, except for a bunch of toppled over cones, then I get to where the workers are.....lol, not working, of course! Then you pass them and the toppled cones continue. Did anyone actually see any work being done? Our City Council should also know of any major road work going on so where are the notifications and who is ultimately responsible???? Friend of mine told me it took him 3 hours from Daly City to home in Pacifica today. That is completely unacceptable!!
ReplyDeleteSo I, and hundreds others would like to know what is going on and why there were no notifications and how long this is to be expected.
A prompt response would be appreciated,
Don't expect any support whatsoever for your plan to tear up this portion of the road to make a six lane highway. What little support you may have had has eroded. And people who were unaware of this plan are now aware and saw today what you are capable of. I have been inactive in this regard and will now work very hard to make sure that widening does not happen.
ReplyDeleteYou people couldn't have picked a worse time for construction. And again tomorrow??? We're all trying to continue on with our already hectic days, yet you people are trying to make it impossible to get to and from one location to the next!! Can you move the construction time to later at night or super early in the morning?? The least you can do is at least keep an eye on your workers and make sure they are actually WORKING instead of standing around watching eachother! This is so unacceptable
ReplyDeleteDO NOT EVER PERFORM NON-EMERGENCY ROAD WORK DURING THE DAY AND ESPECIALLY NOT DURING RUSH HOUR!! This is a serious public safety issue.
ReplyDeleteAlso many of the Caltrans workers were spotted standing around doing nothing.
Caltrans: You have done a fine job communicating to the public via NextDoor for Caltrans work with the San Pedro Bridge. However, I fail to understand why the public (and the city and the police department) was not given notice about this work. I fail to understand why the proper materials weren't at the project so that the crew wouldn't have to wait for more materials in a completely foreseeable backup. This is what happens when you close a lane of Highway 1. CalTrans should know this at this point. It's not rocket science. Other highways have the repaving work done at night. Why not here? And why was the public not informed in time so we could plan accordingly? Caltrans still has not posted anything to Next-door for work that is planned for tomorrow (which I only learned from other people via NextDoor).
ReplyDeleteThe project and communications managers really ought to be fired for what happened today. In my own family, we lost a collective 5 hours beyond our normal commute. Multiply this by thousands of people. This is completely unacceptable. Cal Trans owes the people of Pacifica an apology (and really a payment for our time). Your crews are very lucky that someone didn't try to hurt them, the frustration was so bad. As I said, the people who didn't inform the public and who inadequately planned and coordinated this work should be fired.
At the end of a long drive home to Pacifica from Southern California and racing to pick up our dog from the kennel, we encountered this nightmare traffic jam. I get notices from the county and would have known had the city/county known. we could have taken 92 and driven north up Highway 1, but we had no information. I feel sorry for the people who could not pick up their children from camp until after 8 at night or those stuck in vehicles with babies. I am concerned about later in the week, since we have important medical appointments in San Francisco. With much inconvenience, people can go to Highway 92 and go around, but they would have to know before they are stuck in horrendous traffic jam.
ReplyDeleteYou effing sefish bastards. Do you think your time is more valuable than mine?? The answer is for the coastal communities to take over the matienence and constructions of the roads along the hwy 1 corridor. This is far to vital to our communities to allow an incompetent agency like caltrans be responsible for it. The same happened in Marin with golden gate bridge district. We need to do the same thing. We can charge a toll to use tunnels to find agency that way we can give caltrans the big middle finger
ReplyDeleteThis is an outrage. Who planned this on a weekday and during rush hour versus doing it early on a weekend, or even better late at night on one? Glad we were notified also. At first thought, wow, it must have been some accident, and then realizing that it was just construction work? I hope that people write in and that Gidget above reads these and so does Caltrans. Maybe everyone should call Gidget Navarro above at 510-286-5574, and voice their total displeasure, and have her spend her time fielding calls, perhaps from 6am-10pm, just like all of us did sitting in our cars for 2 hours yesterday?
ReplyDeleteThis is a disgrace.
To Gidget Navarro, Caltrans Public Affairs Public Information Officer, San Mateo County
ReplyDeleteet. al. CalTrans officials and those it may concern -
Yesterday’s traffic debacle due to the unannounced Caltrans paving project on Highway 1 in Pacifica near Reina del Mar Avenue was completely outrageous and ridiculously unacceptable. This may very well be the fault of your contractors or subcontractors to a given point. However, it is Caltrans’ complete and utter mismanagement of this project – from the lack of pre-communication with City of Pacifica officials to the fact that an inadequate supply of asphalt/materials on-hand leading to the supply being stuck in the resultant traffic gridlock – that resulted in several reports of many, many people stuck in gridlocked traffic for over 3 hours during peak traffic times over a distance of under 4 miles. At one point, traffic was literally backed up to both Skyline Blvd./Hwy 35 on Southbound Hwy 1 and to Skyline Blvd/Hwy 35 on Sharp Park Road, the only two inlets to the City from the North and East. We personally were affected by being stuck in the gridlock from 5:48pm, traveling South on Hwy 1 from Skyline Blvd./Hwy 35, and not reaching our final destination in Linda Mar until 9:35pm (less a 25 minute break having pulled off the road for food and bathroom needs).
Caltrans’ mismanagement of this project not only led to a severe matter of inconvenience and additional costs (many people had to pay for additional babysitting charges, etc.) for the citizens of both Pacifica and other neighboring communities along the Highway 1 coastal corridor... but most tragically and importantly, it created an extreme risk to the general welfare and safety to the public as even emergency vehicles were unable to move in the gridlock.
Shame on you all. This cannot be allowed to happen again. Ever.
Sincerely,
Brian Smith & Jennifer Wilder-Smith
Pacifica, CA
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ReplyDeleteTruly a safety nightmare. What would have happened had there been an earthquake yesterday during that cluster Cal-trans created?? I, and hundreds of others, would have been stranded, separated from family and utterly out of luck. I hope that this is a lesson learned. We have very minimal access to and from the coast, safety must be the first priority.
ReplyDeleteMy wife was on her way home from a 12+-hour shift last night, and got stuck in this debacle for **2.5 hours**! She called me, desperately needing some information on what the holdup might be, since she was still N of Sharp Park (her alternate route to get home: Sharp Park -> CA-35 -> I-280 -> CA-35 -> CA-92 -> CA-1 NB).
ReplyDeleteI looked on Google Maps -- no incident reported. I looked on Waze -- there was a comment ("CalTrans -- MORONS!!") at about 6pm -- but nothing definite, and no official incident reported. I finally found out what was happening when I called the CHP. NOTHING on San Mateo Co. Alerts. NOTHING on any local news sites. Sure, there was a CHP officer at CA-35 & CA-1 pulled over, with lights flashing -- but no way to communicate to drivers that the highway in front of them was CLOSED!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!! Major unforced error on CalTrans. No blame for City of Pacifica -- except that they could've checked on the CalTrans communication (or lack thereof).
Please apologize and commit to NOT repeating this communication Failure!
CalTrans, is the work complete, or is this lane closure NOT included on your closure map?? (http://quickmap.dot.ca.gov/)
ReplyDelete*At least* use the communication tools that you've got!
The traffic was horrendous and potentially life-threatening in an emergency. The salt in the would was the behavior of the CalTrans workers, who were fist-pumping at motorists who had been sitting in their cars for hours to travel 5 miles. I hope that CalTrans leadership will address this and build better partnerships with the communities they serve.
ReplyDeleteYou suck.
ReplyDeleteOn so many levels....
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ReplyDeleteCaltrans, you had NO BUSINESS doing this repair work in the day. And even if you did, you should have been off the road by 3PM to help ensure you were done and completely out of the way.
ReplyDeleteThe project planner should have never let this happen. Either they are incompetent or they just don't care.
Traffic congestion at rush hour is bad under normal circumstances. Taking out one lane during rush hour is insane or just a callous disregard for the public who pays your salary.
I noticed that the work your people did yesterday was really just a patchwork of... patches. Are your personnel going to come back and do more of this or fill in between the gaps? If so, you better find a different way to run this project!
Why were there no warning signs posted in advance of the construction? I'm sure this project was weeks in the planning. Somebody should have set out warning signs giving drivers weeks of notice. And, even then, the hours of work should have taken into account the traffic patterns and congestion periods. Was this a summer intern who planned this project?
Every city street in the north end of town heading south was gridlocked. You are so lucky there was no medical emergency where your stupidity led to somebody's disability or death. I'm not kidding here. Hours of gridlock everywhere - the traffic jam you caused was not constrained to the highway and Sharp Park Road. You created a severe public safety hazard. Don't do this again.
Traffic remained at rush-hour levels even at 10:30 PM when people who had put off returning to their homes in the middle of the worst of the jam finally braved the drive into Pacifica, Montara, and towns further south. Your traffic jam was FAR WORSE than appeared -- you are just lucky that so many people heard the traffic reports and postponed their return home.
Your incompetence should never be allowed to surface again.
Please let us (Pacifica City Council, new agencies, the Pacifica Police Department, California Highway Patrol, and motorists who regularly use Hwy 1) know if you intend to continue this work (regardless of the planed time of day) on some future date.
Oh, and give us the satisfaction that you either fired the incompetents or put them somewhere in the organization where they are less dangerous. Oh, and please extract from those involved a sincere apology to the public who pays their salaries.
We all should have been notified. There's always signs up well in advance for when Doyle Drive or some other major thoroughfare is going to be shut down, yet there was not an iota of warning about this? Cal Trans, you need to do some clean up on this botched job, you've enroaged so many commuters on the coastal corridor.
ReplyDelete