Comments by Vince Williams

Caltrans may end “free” right turns onto Hwy 92 for HMB commuters

Kevin J. Lansing and Mike Ferriera

I was refering to the programming of traffic metering of the signal lights.  Sorry, if I took the discussion off in an inapropriate direction. I saw the two CalTrans temporary signal light on trailers for four months as an adjunct component of the larger system of traffic lights that CalTrans programs as they think appropriate.  Sort of like the webcam trailer next to it.  That’s a dubious piece of equipment some folks insisted on and a major distraction at a traffic choke point.  Was there a CDP for that?  We can leave it it to the lawyers about whether this ia a new signal light or a adjunct of the traffic handling of an existing light.  With $7.5M one would expect CalTrans to attempt to get a pro forma permit, if their lawyers said it was a new light and the City of HMB inisits on it.  I think we all know what the outcome is going to be, anyway.

Caltrans may end “free” right turns onto Hwy 92 for HMB commuters

The meeting was interesting in that on the big transportation infrastructure issue(the slide closure, duration and extent of repairs) the local politicians have all deferred to CalTrans.  On all the remedial actions like signal timing we seen the beginnings of public local squabbling.  But, If you watch Mr. Moghbel’s responses carefully, you will see that CalTrans CONTROLS the traffic infrastructure on all the state highways on the Coastside.  While our local politicians would like us to think there is a fair amount of local control, there isn’t.  It would appear Mr. Moghbel mostly answers to numbers of cars and all cars are created equal in CalTran’s eyes whether they originated in Ocean Colony or an apartment in Montara.  Sure CalTrans will confer with local politicians, take their input, even inform them when CalTrans has decided to implement something.  But, make no mistake, CalTrans is “responsible” for the state highways and the lights on them.  Which means, you can worry less about what our local politicians say or do.

Devil’s Slide will be open in late September, says Caltrans

CalTrans has $7.5M in emergency funds to spend on playing with the slide at our road closure expense.  Based on surface imagery, it’s hard to understand CalTran’s claim that the sliding is worse than 1995.  The bulk movement of the slide
from the April 2006 images appeared to be under 5 feet. Caltrans drilled two bore holes on the north and south end of the slide in April.  CalTrans reported detecting movement at about 80 feet in one of the bore holes last month.  Last week, CalTrans said the movement has slowed to what it is in the dry season.  Now, they propose an extensive anchoring system that may take 10 percent of the remaining lifetime of the roadway to implement.

CalTrans has held this close to their vest and sealed the site off with a security perimeter.  The first question to ask, before a fix or even a band aid is proposed, is why did the slide roadway fail in April?  Well, there was a long period with much heavier than normal rainfall.  According
to Keyhan Moghbel of CalTrans the two well pumps on the slide were operating, when the slide failed.  At the April 12 MCC Meeting, citizens asked Keyhan Moghbel about CalTrans lack of
maintenance of the drains and ditches on the slide prior to the failure. At the MCC meeting he said he would look into it and get back.  At the Pacifica City Council meeting last week, I
asked him about the maintenance of the drains and his commitment to get backs on that.  He did not answer the question.

The effects of rain on the slide have been controversial. Dr. Hovland proposed dewatering the slide.  This was rejected by CalTrans.  One can read some of the controversy in the Tunnel EIR volumes I and II on CalTrans’ website.  There is also a good general discussion of the slide geology there.

The issue I have is there are 40,000 to 100,000 cubic yards of loose sedimentary rock and dirt on a 45 degree slope over a sloping relatively impervious granodiorite base.  Rain or an earthquake is going to produce sliding action.  CalTrans is proposing to hold back roughly 40,000 cubic yards of loose sedimentary debris material
with something like 100 to 200 tiebacks anchoring not to granodiorite bed rock, but to loose sedimentary material that’s only anchoring quality is what other loose sedimentary debris is loosely sitting on top of it.  The 1995 tiebacks were supposedly about 65 feet horizontal into the slide.  We civilians don’t know how the 1995 tiebacks failed: tension rod snapped, anchor pulled out, slide material flowed around them or the whole system just slid down as part of a bigger slide(I’d guess the latter).  The proposed
anchors will hold a dry pile of rocks, while the contractors work on it.  But, will it survive the added weight of being saturated with water again or an earthquake?  Nothing has in the past century.

I’m not a geotechnical expert.  I just studied these reports so, I could attempt to figure out what CalTrans was up to.  But, even the experts can’t agree except presumably those within
CalTrans.  There has been a century of failure on the slide.  If an independent geotechnical expert was to look into it now, how long would that investigation take, would the CalTrans Engineers have to take time away from their ongoing design to answer pesky questions form outsiders and based on the response to previous work by Dr. Hovland would CalTrans even listen?  The best one could hope from an independent geotechnical investigation would be that the design is overkill or a waste and a recommendation to limit the number of tiebacks and boring.

As an alternative to CalTrans proposed four month plus anchoring project, I would propose a more modest approach. The 1995 repairs worked.  After ten years of acceptable movement, the roadway began to subside during a period of exceptional rainfall in April.  CalTrans sensors detected the movement and the warning signs were turned on.  CalTrans came out surveyed the damage and slowed the traffic down and eventually shut the highway down. By CalTrans own statements their 1995 objectives were met in April.  Presumably, the 1995 anchors were pulled down the slide a few
feet, some bore holes and drains severed and cracks on the surface.  Now, the slide has dried out, slide movement has slowed to acceptable
levels.  At this point, I would suggest refilling the sunken roadway, repave, clean out the drains and ditches and reinstrument the slide. This whole process could take as little as a month.  Should there be a subsequent failure, the regimine of closure, scaling, drilling sensor bore holes, repaving and reinstrumenting can be repeated as needed for the next five years.

The decision on repairs SHOULD HAVE traded off the current repair cost, cost of roadway down time and the risk and additional cost of a one per ten year subsequent failure.

Caltrans will hold next public update in Pacifica on May 10 

I’m planning to go.  I don’t really have any interest in signs or gorilla theatre.  I think the residents up there have a slightly different set of impacts than we do. I’d like to hear them. It’s their meeting. Given an opportunity to speak, I intend to tell CalTrans that I shopped and got my services in Linda Mar.  That the larger community has been cut off whether CalTrans realizes it or not.  I empathise with the folks in Linda Mar. Then I hope to go into CalTrans’s failures.

CalTrans did come to the MCC right after the closure.  I think most of us were in wait and see mode and were overly impressed by their Geologist.  CalTrans’s siezure, lack of a plan and stalling is deplorable and needs to be addressed.

Caltrans will hold next public update in Pacifica on May 10 

CalTrans has taken over Devil’s Slide and set up a security perimeter of miles.  I am clueless as to who they are accountable to.  A month into it,
there isn’t even a plan(see the question and response at the end of the May 4 update on their website).

http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist4/stormdamageroute1/docs/daily_update_50406.pdf

It’s stopped raining.  Movement is minimal.  The sensors worked in April.  Nobody went over the edge in April.  Nobody even bottomed out in April.
According to Caltran’s own statements, the 1995 repairs achieved their goals. It would appear fairly straight forward: Clean out the drains, dump some gravel in the depressions, throw some asphalt on top, restripe it, reinstrurment it, haul all the politicos and press out for a ribbon cutting and we can all take our chances like we have been for the previous ten years.  This could be accomplished in two weeks, if the political will was there to do it.  Instead it’s CalTrans intent to take 10% of the remaining lifetime of the roadway to play with it and no one seems intent on holding them accountable.

Abandoned house in Half Moon Bay catches fire

Thanks for the fast coverage.  I was on Westbound 92 around 5 PM Wednesday afternoon.  Engine 27 from San Mateo was in the backup ahead of me.  My guess is they were moved up to the Coastside to backup the local engine companies.  It’s good to see the mutual aid/greater alarm is in place and working.

Caltrans padlocks road, closes trails on Slide to hikers

The message is clear, it’s our way or your highway. Brain dead public relations.  Didn’t CalTrans learn anything from Katrina?  Security of government workers is a priority over a fast response.  Lot’s of pictures of fallen boulders to instill fear.  Finally, massive fences, closed trails and CHP security standing by. 

A slippery slope:  The Devil’s Slide in 1995

The road fracture lines from 1995 appear to match up with the current fracture lines.  The images from Friday show the southern slump and fracture just starting to appear in the roadway.

Vince Williams

Caltrans will blast loose debris from the cliffs early next week

Dolores,

I also heard *rumors* the slide would never reopen.  When I asked for sources, I didn’t get any. So,
to me it’s just a rumor.

I doubt CalTrans would make a statement like that.
Why eliminate the option of just delaying?  They could study the geotechnical aspects, wait for it to dry out and stop sliding… They could get lucky, it stops sliding, they fill it in, repave, clean out the drains and reinstrument it and they are the big heros for not a lot of cost.  This delaying is consistant with CalTrans prediction it could be months to reopen.

On the CalTrans site “Updates” there is a statement about obtaining “Right of Way permit from the land
owner that will allow crews to perform work above the roadway.” I would guess this is a simpler process than obtaining “environmental permits”.

Vince Williams

Caltrans will blast loose debris from the cliffs early next week

Cheri and Barry,

Thanks for the great images.

Anyone can tell the main fracture at the spray painted white line running in a NW direction across the whole roadway is getting worse(images 3545 through 3565).  Wednesday’s images indicated the area of slipage was larger than the ten or fifteen feet just south of the fractures at the white line.  Images 3561 and 3562 looking south appear to indicate slumpage much further to the south of the white vehicle(not a good place to park).  This may indicate the width of the slipage.

Images 3590 through 3593 show sinking and a pavement fracture.  I’m assuming the images 3619 through 3628 of a new fracture are just south of the slumping in Images 3590 through 3593 because of the chainlink background and the distance from the steel Armco section attached to the K rails.  This may indicate the extent of the horizontal length(width) of the slipage.  I’d guestimate 75 to 100 feet.

Looking at the 1995 images of the slide by Mike Wong in a later article and these, the two road wide fractures appear to line up.

On the west side of the road bed, the outer K rail was undermined and slipped out. It is interesting that the appearance is the roadway bed and supporting earth dropped away intact from the asphalt.  The west side of the sunken K rails appear to be situated right next to the earth and vegetation like before the slip.  There aren’t indications that water undermined the roadbed at a depth of a few feet, because there isn’t any roadbed debris on the vegetation. So, I’d speculate a shallow water undermining of the roadway can be eliminated.

On the westside of the road bed there does not appear to be signs of fracture or slipage further west of the roadway. But, with guessing three feet of westward movement and three feet of downward movement spread out unifomly over 75 to 100 feet it may be hard to see slipage on the west hill side below the roadway.  In image 3613 it may be hard to see the fracture area.  There may be some bulging in image 3580 downslope of the sunken K rail. The images south of these points looks pretty stable.

I’m no expert.  The road surface is clearly deteriorating.  The width of the slip has manifested itself. It mathces up to the 1995 images. There doesn’t appear to be an undermining of the road but, rather a bulk roadbed sinking and sliding. The drilling information is important to know how deep the slide is and how much material is moving.

Vince Williams

Devil’s slide and Shamrock Ranch slip-out are both deteriorating

Very interesting images.  Good way to fact check the CalTrans spokespersons.  I’m no professional, but here goes. 

Shamrock slump doesn’t look that major.

Slide images are more troubling.  The images of the boulders and slumping K rail are dramatic.  But, that’s not the real problem. Looking first at image 3401.  Slumping runs across the whole roadway.  This is just not a matter of the edge of the South Bound lane slipoff.  The problem is across the whole roadbed.

Looking at the following photo’s there are
lots of CalTrans reference marks on the pavement. There must be a reason for this.  Photos measuring the cracks are a real good idea.  That is what CalTrans is doing.  Image 3413 show four cracks running paralell to the direction of vehicular traffic. These appear to be located along the cuts for the sensor wires.  I’d speculate those cuts became the stress risers where fractures of the pavement occured.  The motion is causing a stretch across the whole roadway just south of the CalTrans painted white line.  I’d guestimate from the photos it’s something like two feet West and two feet down. One way to view this is there is a subsurface tear below the faint white spray paint line on the pavement in image 3413 the direction of travel is toward the person in the picture. The roadway south of the white line in image 3413 and up the slight incline(toward the camera)appears to be swinging uniformly toward the person with no major fractures.  It would have been encouraging to see some fractures to the south of the pavement fracture area. That would have indicated the slump area was small perhaps caused by the dynamic load of vehicles bottoming out where the oil spot is on the pavement.  But, I don’t see evidence of that.  There may be movement on a fairly large scale south of the fracture area. That whole southern area may be swinging west and down uniformly.

The concrete/gunnite hillside cracks to the south don’t appear that large. There is movement but not on the scale of Image 3413.

The Monday photos showed CalTrans filled in some of the cracks with asphalt patch to keep the rain out.  That’s prudent for an edge slipout.  But, pointless for a deep slipage. The fact they didn’t bother to fill Wednesday, could be an indication of how deep they think the problem is.

In summary, Image 3413 tells the story to me.  I think CalTrans has to do some Geotechnical exploration to find out the extent of the movement. It’s pointless to talk quick fixes or steel spans until, someone determines a stable place to anchor it. So, for the time being, I’m buying CalTrans’public comments.

Vince Williams

p.s. Thanks for the great coverage. I hope you have a spotter to warn you where to run from the falling rocks.  Hardhats and a more substantial tape measure would improve your images.

Fire consolidation process in progress

It’s election time and readers should look beyond the self serving comments of candidates. 

While some progress toward consolidation has been made recently with both Boards voting their intent to consolidate, either Board can stall the application to LAFCo over any number issues or even unilaterally withdraw an application once made. Many citizens have concerns about the seriousness of the current PMFPD Board’s intent to pursue consolidation, after the election.

Director McShane voted to terminate the contract with HMBFPD without dispute resolution or the courtesy of a complaint letter in September of 2003.  Director McShane did not support consolidation in September 2004 during the first set of consolidation meetings which broke down.  Director McShane has flip flopped so many times on consolidation, most have lost count.

PMFPD Director’s MacKimmie and Riddell recently voted to hire Mr. Doug Snyder as a PMFPD part time employee.  This was done to screen Paramedic candidates should PMFPD go it alone.  Readers of the Fire Board soap opera in the HMBReview will recognize Mr. Snyder as the source of one of the allegations against HMBFPD in 2003.

The current PMFPD Board has a history of transparency issues: daytime meetings, no TV broadcast, no website, one year meeting tape retention, public speaking limits and disrespectful treatment of citizens attending meetings asking questions or making comments.  Just subminimal Brown Act compliance and the Board attempting to control information and public discourse.

The joint consolidation meeting broadcasts were arranged by President Donovan of HMBFPD.

Vince Williams
Candidate for PMFPD Director

Page 5 of 5 pages « First  <  3 4 5