McGuire Announces $20 Million Allocated to Hwy 101 Solution Near County Line

road with large crack as the roadway slumps

Highway 101 just north of the Humboldt/Mendocino County line.

California Senator, Mike McGuire has announced that $20 million in state funding has been allocated to implementing a permanent solution for the ongoing issues with Highway 101 just north of the Humboldt/Mendocino County line.

The area is prone to sliding historically. It is currently down to one-way controlled traffic in the narrow two-lane section of the highway before entering Cooks Valley and Richardson Grove. The northbound lane is slipping, with large cracks expanding as the section drops towards the Eel River.

Concerns mount as the cracks widen, worrying residents who use the highway to access schools and services. No viable alternate route is available if the highway becomes impassable.

Public Information Officer for Caltrans District 1, Miles Cochran, said that if the roadway is open, it is safe. McGuire stated in a social media post, “Expect one lane traffic control to remain in place for several months due to the construction project.”

Stabilization work is set to begin immediately.

The Highway 101 corridor has been subject to controversy over widening projects through the redwood tree-laden Richardson Grove. Many call for a bypass of the area. Though funding has been secured, it is yet to be determined what permanent solution Caltrans will propose as a permanent fix to the roadway issues in the corridor.

 

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Permanently on Monitoring
Guest
Permanently on Monitoring
1 year ago

As the Highways of Northwestern California crumble and fall into the river, McGuire, the next Governor, throws money at the problem once again…

CalTrans and the State of California have shown gross negligence for over 50 years, and our highways reflect poor maintenance, bad design, and full stop non-safety as their mission, while they all suck up fat retirement checks…

101 is a train-wreck from hell for its entire length! 20 BILLION dollars wouldn’t fix it…

Time to put on the big-boy pants, hire some men and rebuild the whole damn thing…

Tyr
Guest
Tyr
1 year ago

Big boy pants and hire some men
What no women allowed?

Mega
Guest
Mega
1 year ago
Reply to  Tyr

Missed the entire point just so you could get offended. Lol typical

Tyr
Guest
Tyr
1 year ago
Reply to  Mega

No, I understood her point and wasn’t offended in the slightest.

Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.”― Isaac Asimov

Last edited 1 year ago
Permanently on Monitoring
Guest
Permanently on Monitoring
1 year ago
Reply to  Tyr

Most highway engineers are women. It’s a boring job, filling out forms and keeping records.
A lot of lady highway engineers quit and go to nursing school…
They’re the ones with their phone in one hand and a clipboard in the other…

The men they have now specialize in “leaning on their shovels” and sitting in their trucks when it rains…

So yeah, maybe hire some women to hold those warning signs, drive those D-12’s…

Many road building projects are contracted out, like the section of 29 in Lake County, which took 3 years to build 1.8 miles…

Tyr
Guest
Tyr
1 year ago

My grandfather recently retired from CalTrans in southern CA, a job he held for most his life. I showed him your comment and he said you dont know you butt from a hole in the ground, lol.

Kym Kemp
Admin
1 year ago
Reply to  Tyr

I frequently have to decide whether some comment falls into the insulting which has to be deleted or just is merely describing the situation. While as a whole I would not say that POM doesn’t know his butt from the hole in the ground, I would say that this time his statement is extremely inaccurate. Caltrans is just under 3/4’s male employees.

The most common major hired by Caltrans is civil engineering. About 80% of civil engineers are male. Therefore, it is extremely unlikely that most Caltrans engineers are female…

Also, my husband just retired from Caltrans and no, the majority of engineers in his district weren’t female.

The rest of the comment appears to be sexist and unpleasant which is not unusual for POM in the comment section. Just once I’d like to have a conversation with one of his daughters and find out if he really is as reactionary as he appears on here. I’m hopeful as private communication with him has been lovely, that he just enjoys shooting from the hip wild statements online.

Last edited 1 year ago
Permanently on Monitoring
Guest
Permanently on Monitoring
1 year ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Interestingly, one of my Daughters is an Engineer, a graduate of Franklin Olin College of Engineering.

My laptop tells me that over 60% of Civil Engineers are White, and about a third are Female.

Of course, people do change careers, and I have worked with nursing staff who changed from Civil Engineering.

Engineering school graduates go to Law School, Med School, MBA programs et al…

CalTrans notwithstanding, many road projects in Northern California are contracted out, so your husband’s experience, while more specifically focused on road issues than mine, may not relate to actual numbers of Female Engineers.

Engineering is a rigorous and highly respectable curriculum, and graduation from E-School is a laudable and exemplary act, which could launch a career in many directions…

It is interesting that the Buckhorn Project on 299 was completed between 2014 and 2016 by an amazing piece of roadbuilding involving hundreds of contractors, truck drivers and earthmovers, yet some want to open Richardson Grove up so that even bigger and heavier trucks can travel through and wear the highway at a greater rate.

Of course slides and fall-outs can be repaired, with sufficient time and funding, but, nobody can dispute that California is way behind in roadbuilding, general road maintenance and in building adequate or even sufficient roadways…

Of course, there is another problem, which is diversity in hiring, and approximately 90% of Operating Engineers are Male, which is a clear violation of diversity law…

The other major form of corruption is “family and friends of family hiring”, or, nepotism…

Interestingly, Unions are shot in the butt with corruption, left over from the days when the Mafia had control of unions.

So, who actually goes out and fixes the roads?

Mostly tough, brave men, who work in all conditions, year round.

Many projects take years, cost billions, and still barely keep traffic flowing, such as the section between Ukiah and Willits…

I don’t build highways, but I did try to get into the OE Union when I was 18… No dice, even though the Union Leader lived around the corner from our family…

So I had to go to College and work in Healthcare, which has become quite Female dominated, so no white males need apply…

Fortunately, I am now old and retired, but I spent decades commuting all over the state, so it’s facile to assume I don’t know anything about any subject at all…

And speaking of knowing nothing, how about those Hospital Boards comprised of folks with no Healthcare background?

I wonder how there’s any hospitals at all…

Thanks for publishing this entertaining blog!

Sigh
Guest
Sigh
1 year ago

That was the most long boring post, after your first very, uh, “entertaining” post.

Permanently on Monitoring
Guest
Permanently on Monitoring
1 year ago
Reply to  Sigh

Well I didn’t mean to bore you, but the “anti-outsider” rhetoric is also somewhat tedious…

Does anyone else remember Central Humco, Honeydew Bridge Troll, and Guest?

Proprietary comment section aside, I would say that many of the most raving lunatics have found other entertainment in the last few years, so it’s time for some applicants…

I support this blog existentially ans well as monetarily, as everyone should who reads it, and the editor is as welcome to comment as anyone else, although my advice is to not pick a weapon and join the fracas…

Thanks for your contribution to the Gestalt!

Sigh
Guest
Sigh
1 year ago

Money is allocated to address a problem, gets labeled “throws money” as if money allocated to address a problem is the problem. Classic do-something, get criticized, don’t do something, get criticized. Guess what, everyone who uses the highway wants it fixed enough to be safely passable. And the underlying reality is we live in a region of unstable soils, vast forest lands, water courses galore, active techtonics = things move. And you really said “rebuild the whole damn thing” right after “20 BILLION dollars wouldn’t fix it”.

Permanently on Monitoring
Guest
Permanently on Monitoring
1 year ago
Reply to  Sigh

Gosh, it should be clear that 50 years of neglect can’t be repaired by McGuire or his “band-aid” funding…

They used to say, “it costs a million dollars a mile to build the interstate”…

Now it costs a million a mile to talk about fixing any highway, and even though the gas tax was raised, nothing gets any better, except in Urban areas…

I had the experience of being trapped in Humboldt in Spring 2017, couldn’t drive down the 101 because of a big-butt slide, couldn’t go to Redding because of a big-butt slide, I guess I coulda gone to Yreka North from Willow Creek, or over the “road-substitute” 36 to Red Bluff (not recommended in Winter), but I chose to drive my front-wheel drive Acura over the “Bell Springs Cow Path” in a hard rain, which took 3 hours to drive the 40 or so miles and which I would never try again…

And that’s what you still have, 6 years later.

So, quit apologising, and start a fuss!

It won’t help but it’s more constructive and more entertaining than your comment.

sohumjoe
Member
sohumjoe
1 year ago

Put your big boy pants on, I drove bellsprings several times when the highway was closed due to the big confusion hill slide. It wasn’t that bad. I was in a subaru legacy.
For such a macho guy you sre whine alot

Permanently on Monitoring
Guest
Permanently on Monitoring
1 year ago
Reply to  sohumjoe

Yes, the trip was probably unnecessary, but still educational, and there are many parts of Humboldt/Mendo/Trinity I have not been to, and several others I shouldn’t care to return to…

I don’t relate to being Macho or exhibiting machismo, but I was born to complain, and get results…

Somebody should complain about all the press releases from McGuire, Huffaker etc, who I call ineffective horn-tooters, but they will be badly running the state soon, so it’s time to call out the complainers…

Complain to the Governor’s Office online, and that fiasco with the trailer park above Willits is a good example of deferred maintenance and passing the buck…

Bell Springs Road is not for the unadventurous, at the best of times, and the part where it’s basically bare rocks, was not appreciated, but I grew up driving on ranches and camping in the sierra, so I know where I can go and where I won’t go…

Drive Acuras, Subarus are for old ladies…

Ricky Bennis
Guest
Ricky Bennis
1 year ago

“Let me talk to your supervisor”
“I always get results!”
Results: eye rolls

Sky PilotD
Member
1 year ago

OR…you could just move somewhere more to your liking. Problem solved.

Permanently on Monitoring
Guest
Permanently on Monitoring
1 year ago
Reply to  Sky Pilot

Everywhere has problems.

At least it’s quiet here, and doesn’t stink of weed…

Ricky Bennis
Guest
Ricky Bennis
1 year ago

So your solution is… to walk away? Yelling? So brave, so genius. Of course no one will get it.

Gary Whittaker
Guest
Gary Whittaker
1 year ago

If you think it’s bad down near the southern redwood curtain, the del Norte end of things aren’t smooth sailing either.
After the hwy 101 tunnels are dug under redwood park near the last chance grade, it’ll be 2038 or beyond, just in time for all those electric self driving vehicles. In the meantime, get used to 1 laned, traffic signaled, slow tracked projects for NorCal.

Poster formerly known as Matt
Guest
Poster formerly known as Matt
1 year ago

[edit] I drove to the bay area on Tues and back last night. 101 was fine.

Btw, the sliding concrete has been removed and there’s a big flat hole there now where the crew is working.

Tired
Guest
Tired
1 year ago

Time to plow all those trees to make a safer and wider road.

D'Tucker Jebs
Member
1 year ago
Reply to  Tired

The issue with the section that is sliding isn’t the trees, it’s the slope.

thetallone
Guest
thetallone
1 year ago

Public Information Officer for Caltrans said that if the roadway is open, it is safe.
I love how they keep saying that. Yeah, it’s safe unless it caves in while you’re on it. These roads were safe, too, until they weren’t.

bridge.jpg
Ed Voice
Guest
Ed Voice
1 year ago

“The northbound lane is slipping, with large cracks expanding as the section drops towards the Eel River.”

Can we agree, its the South Fork Eel River please!

Guest
Guest
Guest
1 year ago
Reply to  Ed Voice

Tomayto, tomahto…