The agenda for Humboldt County Association of Governement's (HCAOG) Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) indicates that Caltrans has chosen Alternative 3A as its preferred alternative for the 101 Eureka Arcata Corridor Improvement Project.

Item 4 says:

EUREKA-ARCATA U.S. 101 CORRIDOR IMPROVEMENT PROJECT PROGRESS/EXPENSE REPORT (Encl)

Background: Caltrans Project Manager, Kim Floyd will provide the Committee with an update on the Progress Report for the Eureka-Arcata U.S. 101 Corridor project which outlines expenditures, actions, milestones, and Alternative 3A as Caltrans preferred alternative.

One of the modified alternatives, Alternative 3A includes a ~$15 million compact diamond interchange at Indianola Cutoff, and a half signal at Airport Road making preventing vehicles from returning to Eureka from Jacobs Avenue without first proceeding north to Indianola Cutoff before turning around.  This option costs twice as much "STIP" dollars as Alternative 1A, leaving less money for road improvements in our communities.

It remains to be seen if any mitigations for non-motorized users will be included to make up for the loss of connectivity when median crossings are closed at Bayside Cutoff, Bracut, Mid-City Motorworld and Airport Road for those wishing to return to Eureka.

Project manager Kim Floyd stated in an email that the Final EIR for the project will be completed next summer.

The Times-Standard reports that a bicyclist was struck and injured on 101 southbound near Jacobs Avenue last Friday:

"Eureka resident Theodore Cooper, 66, was driving southbound near Jacobs Avenue at 50 mph when his 2002 Volkswagen drifted to the right, crossing over the white edge line, according to a California Highway Patrol press release. Cooper's vehicle collided with Colleen Murrish, 54, who was riding her bicycle on the shoulder.

Murrish was ejected from the bicycle and was not wearing a helmet. She received moderate injuries and was sent to St. Joseph Hospital."

Luckily Colleen was only injured.  Despite this collision, 101 is still the safest route for bicyclists between Arcata and Eureka because it has a fairly consistent 8 foot shoulder.  Hopefully this incident will spur decisionmakers forward to improve conditions for non-motorized users, like trail development.

Best wishes to Colleen for a speedy recovery.  Good luck to CHP in investigating and dealing properly with what happened.

Also, wear your helmet, folks.  It reduces the risk of brain injuries, which are extremely uncool.

We got an extension because we needed it.  But now our comments (available in html or as a pdf) are in to Caltrans and cc'd to other relevant decision makers.  Let's hope they heed them.  The comment period was too short (17 days) to inform more of the public on the issues for non-motorized users, but with the ext

Also available as a pdf.

January 13, 2008

Kim Floyd

Project Manager

California Department of Transportation

P. O. Box 3700

Eureka, CA 95502 – 3700

Dear Ms. Floyd,

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the new modified alternatives for the 101 Eureka Arcata Corridor Project. While the less expensive Alternative 1A provides an option that is somewhat more affordable, Caltrans has failed thus far to adequately justify the project or to address the impacts this project would have on non-motorized users of the corridor.

A group of us biked to the Caltrans 101 Eureka Arcata Corridor Improvement Project Open House last Wednesday to further assess what was on offer, in particular with the 2 new alternatives recently added to 3 previous alternatives.  One member of our group rode the corridor for the first time.

Caltrans will host an "Open House," Wed., 5-7pm at the Wharfinger Building in Eureka to display drawings of new proposed "modified alternatives" for the 101 Eureka Arcata Corridor Improvement Project and invite public comment.  We're not sure if there will be a hearing, or just comment cards.

Caltrans made a presentation available on its website which illustrates two new alternatives on the 101 Eureka Arcata Corridor Project, which is a project to close all at-grade median crossings on the corridor to eliminate left-turn movements.  The new alternatives, 1A and 3A are variations on Alternatives 1 and 3 in the original draft EIR.

With tight budgets forcing expensive overpasses out of the picture on the 101 Eureka Arcata Corridor Improvement Project, and safety issues pushing the closure of all median crossings from Arcata to Eureka, Caltrans responded to comments to their original proposal with new ideas on how to cross this thoroughfare safely.

This letter appeared as a guest opinion editorial on 30 September 2007 in the Eureka Reporter, and in the Times-Standard.

To the California Department of Transportation and Humboldt County Association of Governments,

We are a coalition of North Coast groups representing diverse interests in our community.