Major repairs closes East Blanco Road in Salinas

Thousands of drivers will be detoured starting Monday morning. A heavily traveled portion of East Blanco Road in Salinas will be closed for eight weeks, as a wastewater pipeline project gets underway.

NewsChannel 5 spoke with residents in the area that may be inconvenienced. Douglas Dunn lives on the street directly behind the closure. Dunn said he does not look forward to his commute home from work.

“It’s upsetting because it’s going to cause problems here. We don’t need any type of accident or tie up of traffic backlog of traffic throughout the neighborhood,” said Dunn.

Westbound lanes from Blanco Circle to La Mesa Way will be closed. Drivers will be detoured onto Abbott Street to John Street and then Main Street, which becomes Highway 68. The 2,300 foot industrial wastewater pipeline will support south Salinas agricultural businesses.

“Move water more efficiently and recycle it for different uses. Very successful project and this is one part of the improvements that we are making on an overall $8 million project,” Salinas Public Works Director Gary Petersen said.

“It’s going to take a while so we’re going to have to kind of cope with it, deal with it, and try to find better ways of handling the traffic here,” said Dunn.

There will be public meetings at 11 a.m. each Wednesday at Salinas City Hall until the project is complete for those with questions.