Citizens’ appeals for wood structure ignored; concrete
coming
Elected officials blasted Caltrans for misleading the public
into thinking citizens had a say in median aesthetics along Highway
156.
The Dec. 19 meeting of the Council of Governments
– the joint city/county transportation agency – did not begin
antagonistically.
Citizens’ appeals for wood structure ignored; concrete coming
Elected officials blasted Caltrans for misleading the public into thinking citizens had a say in median aesthetics along Highway 156.
The Dec. 19 meeting of the Council of Governments – the joint city/county transportation agency – did not begin antagonistically.
“I first want to thank the city of San Juan Bautista for the work they did in assembling the citizens advisory committee,” said Gregg Albright, Caltrans district director. “A great deal of effort went into evaluating this project.”
And that, in a nutshell, was the problem – effort was put forth, but Caltrans seemingly ignored the citizens’ recommendations.
Eight months ago Caltrans asked a group of San Juan Bautista residents to form an advisory committee to determine whether to build a median barrier on the two-lane stretch of Highway 156 that meanders through hills and pastureland between The Alameda and Highway 101 and, if so, what it should look like.
Committee members initially wanted no barrier, but compromised on something made of sturdy wood to fit the area’s rural setting – a solution Caltrans disregarded. Instead, the state agency says it will build the one thing San Juan Bautista residents said they didn’t want – a $3.9 million concrete barrier.
“The concrete barrier is as ugly as hell, which is where all the Caltrans liars can also go,” said San Juan Bautista activist Rebecca McGovern, who had helped research alternatives to a concrete barrier.
While several committee members spoke, McGovern was the most eloquent. She said the only reason the committee went through the trouble of looking for a suitable median barrier is they were told by Caltrans they would get one whether they liked it or not.
McGovern further accused Caltrans of selling out to trucking interests by putting in the concrete barrier and ultimately planning to widen the highway through the San Juan Valley to Hollister.
“San Juan is the jewel of this county,” she said. “It does not begin with the San Juan Mission or the state historic park or the historic mission district. It begins when you roll off the 156 exit and all of a sudden you know you are in a different world. The beautiful panorama of the rolling hills, the pastures, the windmills, the cattle – all set the stage for the ambience of San Juan Bautista…If San Juan’s beauty and history is destroyed, it is of no consequence to Caltrans.”
Caltrans officials tried to assure the council that the concrete barrier, scheduled for 2005, would blend in with the landscape with a brown coat of paint. There have been five crossover accidents during the last five years on the stretch where the barrier will be built, compared with more than 20 in 2½ years on Highway 25, where no barriers exist.
In order to prove anything short of a concrete barrier was no good, Caltrans officials thumbtacked a poster to the wall showing a mangled metal median barrier. The semi-truck that hit it plowed through into oncoming traffic.
“In this particular instance it took a day and a half to clear up traffic,” said Steve Price, the assistant district director for Caltrans.
Caltrans hardhats then lugged a 120-pound piece of a wooden barrier into the chambers to show how tough it would be to lift. Caltrans officials also implied it could be a safety hazard for them to work with the wood since toxic chemicals such as arsenic are used as preservatives.
Before committee members spoke their piece, Albright came back to the podium.
“I think at this point I’ll offer myself up for any questions you might have of me,” Albright said in a sprite manner.
His mood changed quickly. Supervisor Richard Scagliotti first clarified for the record that using a concrete barrier was completely Abright’s decision. Then became angry that Caltrans discounted San Juan input.
“So what are we doing here wasting our time? Your time?” Scagliotti asked rhetorically. “It’s your highway and I’m going to tell you very frankly: You wasted our time, the taxpayers’ money by coming up here and asking these people to do what they did. You make the final decision and I support that and I respect that, but it was wrong in what you just did by having these people believe they had input.”
The six-foot plus district director left the podium without defending himself.
