‘Frazzled and Sleep-deprived’ at the Highway 156 Interchange
‘Frazzled and Sleep-deprived’ at the Highway 156 Interchange
Editor,
When I start losing sleep due to truck noise, it is time to write a letter to the editor. We used to get a respite from traffic at night in San Juan Bautista, but no more. Trucks roll all night and many of them hit their “jake” brakes as they approach the Alameda traffic light. Truck sounds really pick up early in the morning and we hear the fluttering and popping sound for a quarter of a mile and more, all day all night. The worst is when truckers hit the brakes at 2am in the morning. I’m up!
The fact CalTrans raised the highway to go over the town, the whole community is disturbed by the noise. Not just traffic immediately in our town, but trucks can be heard miles away as they approach and leave the Alameda light. The letters from the engineers, commuters, truckers all say we need a wider road on 156. They don’t live in our jewel of town and the traffic noise and pollution are destroying it. The trucks that used to go through Hollister were doing the same thing, but they were going 20 to 30 mph. The trucks coming into San Juan are traveling at 65 mph from the west and just barely get down to 55 to 60 mph as they approach the stoplight and use their engines to slow down. If the light is green, trucks roar and rumble through from both directions at top speed. Hollister is so fortunate it got the bypass. With the increased truck traffic of today, any business or home along San Benito and down Fourth could not tolerate the traffic noise. Where is the compassion to save our town?
The entrance into our town is as important as the town itself. The next time you approach San Juan going west, notice the long stand of magnificent pine trees to your left, starting at Breen and Mission Vineyard Road To the Alameda. Behind the trees are low-cost housing, fields with crops and one of the few campground and RV parks in San Benito County. The campground was flooded during El Nino including the fields beyond because CalTrans did not put enough culverts to take the water. Now they want to destroy the business completely by cutting down the beautiful trees and compromising the fields. At the Alameda light, a grade school sits to the right and CalTrans wants to bring more truck traffic through our town. Give us a break.
Absolutely, we need a major crossover going east and west from 101 to the Central Valley. At the moment that crossover is channeled through San Juan. Caltrans has presented a plan which brings traffic off Pacheco Pass to a multi-lane truck route that connects to 25, a highway that should be widened, is not agricultural land and does not compromise a town. I feel this plan should be our focus, helping everyone in San Benito, Santa Clara and Monterey Counties.
Yes, I lose sleep because I feel we, who live in San Juan Bautista, assume to have such a small voice against CalTrans and COG. They keep saying the widening of 156 from San Juan to Union Road is coming, so quit complaining. Historical San Juan Bautista is one of the major attractions to our county and trucks are taking it down, making it no longer quaint, but noisy and filled with diesel exhaust. I’m frazzled and sleep deprived.
Gayle Sleznick
San Juan Bautista
