Dear Jon: The challenge of Highway 1 gridlock through Moss Landing

Tourists, residents and gridlock on our highways, especially on Highway 1 proves a headache for drivers on the Central Coast. If you drive through Moss Landing daily you know what gridlock can be during the rush hour. Kelly wrote to me and asks, “Dear Jon, we live in the richest state in the U.S. and Highway 1 is still just two lanes from Monterey to Santa Cruz. Are there plans to make it four lanes, as it should be?

Highway 1 through Moss Landing is a unique problem for planners in Monterey County. The reason for that? State law. Monterey County planner and acting director for the Resource Management Agency, Carl Holmes tells me the answer to Kelly’s question boils down to the environment verses land use planning.

Moss Landing on Highway 1 is a unique melding of coastal beauty and urban issues. You’ll find the sensitive Elkhorn Slough, Moss Landing harbor, the power plant, the community itself and strawberry fields forever. But with tourists and local commuters the 5 mile two lane stretch from Marina to Salinas road brings daily gridlock and county planners are aware of the issues.

Another area of concern is where Highway 183 connects to Highway 1 just outside of Castroville.

When I asked Holmes about widening Highway 1, his first response was, “It’s not going to happen.” Holmes says if there ever is a green light to widen Highway 1 to four lanes, the California Coastal Commission will have to be sold on a viable solution. And right now the plan that the county has proposed doesn’t cut it with the Coastal Commission.

Holmes says even though traffic can be a nightmare in this location, California law keeps Highway 1 two lanes, “We have a plan that has been adopted by the county in 1987 that talks about four laning Highway 1 in the north county area. However, we’ve been working with the Coastal Commission staff and they had a periodic review in 2003. They’ve identified this area as being rural and under the Coastal Act, a rural area of Highway 1 is supposed to stay two lanes, such as Big Sur and other areas along the coast.”

Even though the Coastal Commission is enforcing the Coast Act in this location of Highway 1 at this time, it hasn’t stopped county planners from looking at other alternatives. In fact, Holmes says if his department, along with the Transportation Agency for Monterey County and Caltrans feel the need to debate the Coastal Commission’s findings, they can do that. Says Holmes, “You can ask, is this really a rural section of road from Marina to Salinas road? Is that the intent of the Coastal Act in the middle of urban Monterey County and Santa Cruz counties?”

There are big questions for this project, such as what to do over the sensitive Elkhorn Slough? Holmes say they’ve thought about that and if you build a causeway or mass transit, of some sort, these ideas present their own issues.

So four laning Highway 1 may not be the only solution. “What are the alternatives?” Asks Holmes, “If we widen Highway 156, is that an alternative to relieve Highway 1 enough to give people enough of an alternative, that we don’t need to widened Highway 1?”

The best way to look at this problem in the short term from Holmes perspective is, what can they do to get traffic moving? “We’ll look at different types of intersection improvements, roundabouts and interchanges like Salinas Road upgrade,” says Holmes.

So in the short term, prepare to pump your brakes through Moss Landing on Highway 1. You’ll eventually see improvements on 156 and 183 in Castroville to alleviate the gridlock.

But if a plan is ever approved to widen Highway 1, Holmes says it would take a minimum of 10 years, just to move dirt.

And that’s providing that they get funding.

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