Caltrans expects Devil’s Slide design and timeline in about two weeks

Ann Corry: In the recent Pacifica Tribune there is news of a Caltrans meeting with the City Council in the City Council Chambers next Wednesday May 10th at 6pm. It is open to the public which gives the opportunity to ask Caltrans questions. the article said that ” The may 10 discussion should be able to provide extensive information to the Council and the public on the situation.”

The city council chambers is located at 2212 Beach Blvd.

The commute in the past few days from Montara to HMB is been very bad. 6:30am leave MB - 7:40 Miramar (1.2 hours). I find most of my business contacts on the Coast who do not experience the traffic are not very understanding. I propose a demonstration at the closed sign in Montara, all frustrated commuters and SF TV news. When the Northridge earthquake happened a few years ago, a number of freeways were destroyed. All was fixed within 3 months. Not complaining - just trying to rally the commuters and those that can find a solution or at least advise what the bottom line is. 2 weeks is a long time to wait for a proposal from Caltrans.

linda I agree. Whatever it takes to make Caltrans move faster on this.

Mike Laffen mentioned that caltrans could hire out to another company to fix the road. This would probably mean that the road would get fixed alot sooner. How could we afford to do this? Any answers? Ann

Wed. pm, Just got back from the meeting in Pacifica. The representation was mixed, Pacifica and Coastsiders. The gentleman from Caltrans was informative but elusive. A commitment was given by him to inform the public of a timeline in the very near future. When questioned about the design plans and the contractor he stated that a meeting was occurring tomorrow am in HMB. Whether this is open to the public was not clarified. The contractor was named but briefly, not enough to take note. There appears to be a very sincere committal to get this fixed, Caltrans workers are supposedly on site 14 min. hours a day. The biggest response from the audience (applause) came when a comment was made to fix it whatever way is possible and we’ll take our chances. Presenter was very politically correct but informative. Grin and bear it Coastsiders!

Comment 5 by Kevin Barron  on  May 11  at  1:43pm  •  All my comments • 

I’m not sure CalTrans has to move any quicker. There is a huge difference between Northridge and our lil’ Coastside. For one, Northridge was a major event or the state/nation. Ours is a local/micro concern. Second, the number of citizens effected by freeway closures/limitations in Northridge were in the hundreds of thousands, if not over a million…. we’re less than 25,000. Ergo, the civilian population was effected, and moreover the economic impact to Northridge (or any SoCal freeway for that matter) was significant. Other than local ma/pa business and a very light level of industry… there’s little cost/benefit for CalTrans to divert $$$/resources to the Slide… with regard to the greater good to the OVERALL welfare of the State of California Besides, most of us on the coast have known a washout/slide could someday happen again, yet we stayed put, and for some worked on dragging out the tunnel as long as humanly possible.

Yes, two weeks may seem like a long time, but you’d want them to get it right, so as to set expecations and allows us all to make alternate plans.