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Re: HOLLISTER??? the pinnacles, I-40, and long overdue......
Author: BOB2
Date: 08-06-2018 - 22:06
Zark,
You just hit the nail on the head on why the "SP" didn't go that way, even though this was the first route surveyed for a "southern" pacific route to SF (nobody knew LA even existed, except as a place to water the camels they used on the survey...). The area around the "pinnacles" was noted as the big challenge, if they wanted a line to go this way via Hollister.
As you probably know, it is actually far easier to cross over to the Valley south of there and miss that, from the upper Salinas River Valley. Which is why this route was looked at for the I-40 "extension" proposal that was floated back then. I've even heard somewhere that a "Coalinga to Coastline" route was looked at by the SP at one time.
And, George,
The extension proposal for I-40 to 101 back in the early/mid 90's was a clear winner when you looked at truck origins and destinations out of and into the Valley, Mid Coast, and South Bay. Some of this traffic does "zig-zag" over to 5 and 58 and points east, using 46 which is inadequate and has been for years, unsafe on a level comparable to the old pre divided highway, two lane highway 86 down in Imperial County. This extension also would have diverted a lot of truck traffic off of the Southern end of 101, and the hassle of going through or around LA traffic, to get to 10 or 40, and points east.
Yeah, I've spent a career that guaranteed full employment, identifying and analyzing highway, transit, and rail projects that were "long overdue" to cope with our increasingly gridlocked freeways, and the costs of poor access, congestion, and increased travel times, that we have not built, or have since been "abandoned", due to political and/or institutional incompetence, the perennial money woes, and/or pandering to nimby fears and/or outright insanity.
There are so many transportation improvements like this, that we could really use, but can't seem to pay for. And yet, we seem to be able to find ways to pay for things like the world's most expensive "cost is no object", both to build and operate, bullet train, that really won't do much of anything to fix any of our well documented transportation deficiencies or meet any of our most pressing travel needs.....
Which could just be more proof that we took the lead out of the gasoline, far too late..
You just hit the nail on the head on why the "SP" didn't go that way, even though this was the first route surveyed for a "southern" pacific route to SF (nobody knew LA even existed, except as a place to water the camels they used on the survey...). The area around the "pinnacles" was noted as the big challenge, if they wanted a line to go this way via Hollister.
As you probably know, it is actually far easier to cross over to the Valley south of there and miss that, from the upper Salinas River Valley. Which is why this route was looked at for the I-40 "extension" proposal that was floated back then. I've even heard somewhere that a "Coalinga to Coastline" route was looked at by the SP at one time.
And, George,
The extension proposal for I-40 to 101 back in the early/mid 90's was a clear winner when you looked at truck origins and destinations out of and into the Valley, Mid Coast, and South Bay. Some of this traffic does "zig-zag" over to 5 and 58 and points east, using 46 which is inadequate and has been for years, unsafe on a level comparable to the old pre divided highway, two lane highway 86 down in Imperial County. This extension also would have diverted a lot of truck traffic off of the Southern end of 101, and the hassle of going through or around LA traffic, to get to 10 or 40, and points east.
Yeah, I've spent a career that guaranteed full employment, identifying and analyzing highway, transit, and rail projects that were "long overdue" to cope with our increasingly gridlocked freeways, and the costs of poor access, congestion, and increased travel times, that we have not built, or have since been "abandoned", due to political and/or institutional incompetence, the perennial money woes, and/or pandering to nimby fears and/or outright insanity.
There are so many transportation improvements like this, that we could really use, but can't seem to pay for. And yet, we seem to be able to find ways to pay for things like the world's most expensive "cost is no object", both to build and operate, bullet train, that really won't do much of anything to fix any of our well documented transportation deficiencies or meet any of our most pressing travel needs.....
Which could just be more proof that we took the lead out of the gasoline, far too late..
