More information about “The Willits Bypass” highway project.
Caltrans’ planned clearcut and 86-acre wetlands-fill would irreparably harm Willits Valley, California’s wildlife, waterways, and more. Learn why.
Great, detailed and impassioned interviews on KPFA radio. Worth the effort to find — drag playhead to 33 min. mark: http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/90327
• Center for Biological Diversity PRESS RELEASE
• KQED blog (read this post’s comments, too): http://tinyurl.com/cjq88we
• Willits Valley (SOLLV) community updates: http://www.savelittlelakevalley.org
• Sign the petition (takes 30 sec.) challenging the sanity and necessity of The Willits Bypass: https://www.change.org/petitions/cancel-the-caltrans-willits-bypass-project
Go back to Willits TreeSpirit Event page.
Congestion Relief?
• The Bypass will divert only 20-30% of traffic, including trucks. 70% of stop-and-go traffic, and Willits congestion, will remain.
• An alternative solution could divert almost all truck traffic off Main St. and eliminate most stop-and-go traffic.
• The projected future increase in traffic along the 101 corridor (used by Caltrans to justify the Bypass) has not been realized since predicted. Instead, there has been a slight decline, a trend likely to continue.
• The congestion at the Hwy 20 turn off was introduced approximately 20 years ago, when Caltrans re-striped the northbound approach to a single lane, eliminating a critical right-turn capability — and creating the backup. This has greatly contributed to the perception that a Bypass is needed to solve a problem that was artificially created with poor traffic engineering.
• A proposal at the Willits City Council to resolve our traffic problems with an alternative route through town by connecting Railroad Ave. to Baechtel Ave. was discouraged by MCOG Executive Direct, Phil Dow, who argued that alleviating the backup would reduce local support for a Bypass.
• All Hwy 20 traffic (including trucks) will continue to use Main St. since there is no central connectivity with the Bypass (and no future plans for it either).
• The southern interchange is designed to require Willits traffic coming from the South to exit the freeway on the right, stop at the end of the off-ramp and then turn left to proceed into town. This will create a new bottleneck and inconvenience for drivers coming into Willits.
• The northern interchange will create similar unnecessary inconveniences for vehicles coming in and out of Willits only to go from one 2-lane road right back to another.
Local Economic Impacts
• 14-26 (out of 118) Willits businesses will fail due to the Bypass. In addition, any remaining businesses will suffer at least a 10% loss of revenue. This will mean a significant loss of sales tax revenues.
• The southern interchange of the Bypass has been designed to accommodate a freeway-style business section (gas stations, restaurants, motels) outside city limits which could further erode business in Willits and the city’s sales tax revenues.
• 90% of local business owners/managers on Main St. have signed a petition voicing their opposition to
the Bypass in its current design.
• Caltrans is retreating from earlier assurances to ranchers (some forced to sell their lands into the Mitigation Trust) that they would be able to lease back their lands for grazing. This could have a negative impact on the local production of meat products.
• No funding is allocated (thru relinquishment or otherwise) to make necessary enhancements to Main St. in conjunction with the Bypass project. The relinquishment offered to the city only covers the cost of bringing sidewalks into ADA compliance (which Caltrans should have completed years ago since they own the road).
• The relinquishment funds include nothing for future maintenance costs that will be incurred by the City of Willits after the relinquishment.
• The Bypass together with its Mitigation Plan requires the purchase of approximately 2000 acres of farmland. Much of this will be taken out of production. All of it will be removed from the county tax base.
• Through MCOG (Mendocino Council of Governments) the entire county has committed over 31 million of its own STIP funds (State Transportation Improvement Program) to the Bypass, virtually eliminating years of funding better spent on other local transportation improvement projects including public transportation and bike/pedestrian trails.
Construction Impacts
• Piles must be driven as deep as 100 feet into the ground to support the viaduct section of the bypass (over 1 mile). 1,600 piles are needed. Each pile requires up to 2,210 strikes at 187–220 db (decibels). (For comparison, a jet take-off is approximately 140 db.) Because the noise from pile driving will kill the fish in nearby streams, Caltrans has been required to temporarily relocate them. The pile driving will take three years from 7am – 7pm. And this is just for half of the proposed, future 4-lane bypass.
• A conservative estimate of 95,000 tons of CO2 per year of construction will be released into the atmosphere. That is a minimum of 380,000 tons over the construction period. Caltrans claims the Bypass will reduce CO2 emissions because it will reduce stop-and-go traffic, but it will take 70-80 years for their calculated emissions savings to compensate for the construction emissions. This does not include emissions from future Bypass maintenance. The estimates also ignore alternative solutions that would reduce stop-and-go traffic for all vehicles passing through Willits – not just the 20-30% using the Bypass.
• The construction of the bypass (Phase 1 only) will require 1,400,000 cubic yards of fill. This will require 140,000 dump truck loads or an average of 22 loads/per hour over the construction period (200 days/yr X 4 yrs X 8 hrs/day). Many of these trucks will need to pass through town. (Caltrans has repeatedly stated they cannot impose rules on the contractors).
• Construction will require the use of haul roads through wetlands that will supposedly then be restored. Caltrans has offered no explanation or plans for how these wetlands will be de-compacted and “restored” after completion of the Bypass.
• Placing huge amounts of fill dirt on top of wetlands will require that the ground below be drained and collapsed (intentionally compacted) by the insertion of 55,000 wick drains. This will form an underground dam across the flood plane with complex and unpredictable underground hydrological effects.
• The process of placing the fill dirt itself will require the use of huge (and unspecified) amounts of water. Where this water will come from is unspecified — but likely from wells on the surrounding Mitigation lands – either existing or new. This excessive extraction of water would have a dramatic impact on the groundwater level and, therefore, all the other wells in the valley.
• No monitoring plan has been presented or required for the impact on the water quality of the creeks that the haul roads will cross.
Physical Impacts
• Since the Bypass route cuts through the valley bottom, it will all have to be a raised structure (from 10-30 feet above the valley floor). Much of this bisects a flood plane. The section closest to the city will rise to 30 feet (over the railroad tracks). Part of this will be a viaduct (a bridge-like structure) approximately 1 mile in length. It will pass over Commercial and East Valley streets – and our sewer plant. The rest of this section will be a huge dirt wall (2-3 stories tall) that will represent a dam to the flood waters (and eyesore).
• This elevated section with greatly increased vehicle speeds will project unprecedented, higher road noise, especially from trucks, throughout the valley and up into the surrounding hills.
Social Considerations
• The Bypass has been a deeply divisive issue in our community. There are strong feelings on both sides of the fence. These divisions will continue and possibly even intensify in the coming years, especially as the real consequences of the Bypass become more and more apparent.
• Caltrans has repeatedly and consistently refused to work together with members of our community to resolve disputes – even with people strongly in favor of the Bypass but concerned about certain aspects of the design (like the lack of a Hwy 20 interchange) and much to the exasperation of even those City Council members who favored the bypass. It seems as though very few people in the community are entirely happy with the Bypass as it is being crammed down our throats.
CA State Senator Noreen Evans letter to Caltrans’ Director Michael Doughterty:
March 5, 2013
Michael Dougherty, Director
California Department of Transportation
1120 N Street
Sacramento, CA 94273-0001
Dear Director Dougherty:
Caltrans is about to begin the construction phase of a project of great importance to my district that was proposed 50 years ago. The Willits Bypass has been promoted as a safe, sensibly sized and environmentally friendly project that will relieve congestion on Highway 101 through Willits. Local residents and their representatives have spent much time working with Caltrans and regulatory agencies to ensure the success of this project. I do not know of anyone who does not support an alternative, including myself.
Unfortunately, as facts about the selected project become more widely known, opposition is mounting. It is disconcerting when after all these years many ranchers, farmers, local businesses, environmental groups and ordinary citizens agree that the Willits Bypass, as it is presently conceived, should not be built.
My office has been contacted by constituents who are feel that concerns about the project have gone unanswered by Caltrans, and that it is being built based on faulty and outdated information. Among the questions and my concerns:
• In 2008, the California Transportation Commission, refused to fund a four lane project as proposed by Caltrans. Caltrans quickly redesigned the project for two lanes, with grading to add two additional lanes at some later date. There is no funding for a future expansion and the need to expand is questionable since traffic counts have over the years continued to remain steady or declined. I have been asked why Caltrans is spending millions of dollars to expand the project’s footprint and adding thousand of ton of fill to wetlands, to prepare for what appears to be an unfunded and unneeded future expansion?
• Caltrans has clearly stated in its environmental documents that a two lane project does not meet the “purpose and operational need of the project,” yet this is the project that is going forward. Because of Caltrans insistence on a four lane project, two lane alternatives were summarily rejected and not examined in the EIR/EIS. How can we determine whether the current two lane project is the superior project?
• The two lane Willits Bypass consists of 6 miles of raised roadbed, including several curves and a mile of viaduct and raising to a maximum height of 30 feet. The Bypass will not have a medium barrier and no emergency access. Is this project safer than current conditions? Local officials have asked why Caltrans is building a project that can only be made safer by spending millions more for an additional two lanes that serve no other need?
• Local residents say that much of the traffic in the City of Willits could be effectively relieved through traffic management programs at the Highway 20 intersection. Why is
this not considered as a partial solution to the problem, especially since about 70 percent of current Highway 101 traffic through Willits is locally bound?
• There is a perception that Caltrans has refused to seriously look at other two lane alternatives. Has the agency thoroughly examined the Baechtel Road-Railroad Avenue
Corridor, a route through Willits’ eastside industrial area that was initially the focus of a 2004 community-led study funded by Caltrans? Some participants in this study say that the route is a viable alternative for through-town traffic which avoids wetlands. This route has tremendous popular support, avoids environmental problems and could save taxpayers millions of dollars in scarce transportation funds. Are there reasons why it shouldn’t be seriously examined?
I look forward to the opportunity to meet with you and your staff to discuss the Willits Bypass, and address these issues that have been raised by my constituents. I understand the need and fully support an alternative transportation solution, and am willing to work with you for a project that addresses the transportation needs of Willits and the region.
Sincerely,
NOREEN EVANS
Californis State Senator, 2nd District
More information:
The Environmental Protection Information Center.
Center for Biological Diversity PRESS RELEASE
• Sign the petition (takes 30 sec.) challenging the sanity and necessity of The Willits Bypass: https://www.change.org/petitions/cancel-the-caltrans-willits-bypass-project