Is SLO County roadwork driving you crazy? Here’s where to expect delays — and why
Are all the roadwork projects in San Luis Obispo County driving you batty?
I feel your pain.
Here are the locations of just a few of the dozens of projects underway in San Luis Obispo County: Los Osos Valley Road and the side road leading into Target. A bunch of streets in Morro Bay. Downtown Atascadero. Highway 1 near Cayucos. Cambria’s busy two-lane Main Street and Burton Drive hill into East Village.
A stretch of Highway 101 is being resurfaced near Atascadero, prompting overnight lane closures on certain days. And then there’s the round-under construction on Highway 46 at Vineyard Drive, which will reportedly be done before the California Mid-State Fair starts in Paso Robles.
Road repair, rehabilitation and construction projects are nearly everywhere we turn. There’s even sewer line work going on.
It seems like you can’t get from here to anywhere without facing orange traffic cones, reversing lanes or total road closures. Some detours feel like they’re sending you in circles.
Over here, crews are working on a bridge. Over there, they’re putting in a new guardrail — like the one county crews are installing on Burton Drive in June. Workers are fixing culverts, working on stoplights and patching pavement.
Planning a trip out of town? Don’t expect a quick ride when you’re traveling on Highway 101 through Santa Barbara to Ventura.
Construction on that stretch meant our commuting granddaughter recently spent 2.5 hours to get to work on a 28-mile route that ideally should take 30 minutes to traverse.
It’s a pain.
Why are so many road projects right now?
So why are so many roadwork projects happening now?
According to Kevin Drabinski, Caltrans spokesman, there are lots of reasons.
“Spring and summer weather presents better temperature conditions for paving work,” he wrote via email. “Major paving projects usually take place during overnight hours to minimize delays for traffic. Nighttime temperatures cooperate nicely in the spring and summer for this work to take place.”
What about those slow-moving mowers we see this time of year?
“Mowing of shoulders and medians occurs after rains have subsided and subsequent growth has dried,” Drabinski explained.
“Caltrans also begins winter prep work during summer and fall, especially in regard to our drainage infrastructure and culvert systems,” wrote. “It is harder to scope culverts in the dark, so summer presents ideal conditions for this critical work.”
Local streets in need of repairs
If you’re wondering why many local roads are being worked on, look at the condition of the roadways that aren’t being repaired yet — or feel it through your vehicle’s shock absorbers.
You’ll spot potholes, bumps, pavement peel-backs and more.
Yeah, the work’s got to be done, and much of it must done in the months when days are longer and more of us are spending more time than ever on the roads.
There has to be a way to learn where the bottlenecks are ahead of time. Right?
There is, but it requires some skipping around online.
Where is roadwork being done in SLO County?
Caltrans has a handy website, QuickMap, that has details on their projects for the next seven days. QuickMap is also available as a phone app.
According to Drabinski, the site provides “real time status of the road conditions on all the state highways.”
“It captures planned closures as well as those that arise suddenly,” he wrote, and even provides information on road conditions such as CHP incidents, weather-related closures, highway construction and maintenance-related closures.
Drabinski wrote that “the closure icons spell out the reason for the incident and can provide an estimate on the time for the road’s reopening.”
QuickMap even lists message signs, cameras and rest stops.
Another Caltrans website tracks District 5 planned lane closures in five counties, including San Luis Obispo County. When I checked the site June 7, there were dozens of those in our county.
San Luis Obispo County has a roadwork website, too, at slocounty.ca.gov/Departments/Public-Works/Services/Road-Closures-and-Delays.aspx. When I checked the site on June 7, the map had so many colored triangles, marking various projects in progress, that it looked like the layout for a tent campground.
Some cities, such as San Luis Obispo, have traffic or roadwork websites, too.
On June 7, San Luis Obispo’s site tracking construction and traffic updates listed 15 projects.
Interestingly, only two of the projects were labeled as being city sponsored. The rest were private.
Elsewhere, projects by private companies and smaller agencies rarely are alerted ahead of time or during the work.
If only all the various agencies and firms could collaborate on a single website where any modestly tech-savvy person could find details on projects that impact the flow of traffic on area roads.
A pipe dream? I hope not.
Bad drivers and road rage
Torn-up roads aren’t the only problem, of course.
Bad drivers can be an issue too. And heavier traffic during tourist season can more than double the trouble when you add in roadwork.
It’s bad enough to have our own homegrown idiots — who, as my friend and former coworker Robert “Buck” Dyer said on Facebook, often “hustle to the front of the line, and butt in when traffic funnels to one lane.”
What about the idiot driver who speeds around me, passing across a double yellow line, only to wind up side-by-side with my car at the stoplight?
In the end, these impatient motorists “are only saving themselves something like 45 seconds,” Dyer said, adding that they should “just chill and merge and save the high blood pressure for something that matters.”
Increased speed can be deceiving.
Dyer has done some informal studies on that.
“I once timed, over a period of six work days, how long it took to drive from home in Atascadero to work in San Luis (Obispo) at 75 mph, and then again at 65 to 67 mph,” he said.
The result? Dyer said “travel time differed by an average of 110 seconds.”
He also noticed “how calming driving in the slow lane was,” he said. “These days I stick to 68 to 70 mph and chill-ax.”
That’s good advice, whether you’re in a road construction zone or not.
Columnist’s Note:
Thanks so much to all of you who responded with advice, concerns and cheerleading after my recent column about my looming cataract surgery. Round No. 1 went very well and was a much easier experience than I’d anticipated. The surprise? During the surgery, I couldn’t see any of what was happening! The operative eye was flooded with a pain-killing gel and a very bright light, and the other eye was completely covered. Thank you, Dr. Gealy!
This story was originally published June 16, 2021 at 5:05 AM with the headline "Is SLO County roadwork driving you crazy? Here’s where to expect delays — and why."
