The traffic on Highway 156 is bad, and about to get worse—at least for a little while.
The California Department of Transportation plans to begin construction on safety improvements on Monday, Aug. 1, which means one lane will be closed Mondays through Thursdays from 8am to 4pm.
Caltrans warns drivers to expect 15-minute delays while roadwork is underway, which is expected to wrap up by the end of the year.
The project calls for rumble strips along the shoulders on a 1.5-mile stretch of Highway 156, from the interchange with Highway 1 to the overpass in Castroville.
Workers will also install a barrier of steel ropes mounted on posts between the lanes of traffic as a safety measure.
"The primary purpose is to prevent a vehicle from leaving the traveled way," says Caltrans spokesman Jim Shivers says.
Oregon-based Coral Construction Co. is the contractor for this $783,000 job.
Meanwhile, the Transportation Agency for Monterey County continues looking at safety—and traffic—improvements to Highway 156, which regularly backs up, especially on weekends.
In June, the TAMC board approved spending up to $40,000 to install two radar feedback signs to alert drivers of how fast they're going.
And a longer-term project—to widen the highway in a new location from two lanes to four, with a more substantial median than the existing double-yellow line—would potentially be funded with a toll. A tolling study is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Monterey County voters will decide on Nov. 8 whether to approve a three-eighths-cent sales tax to help fund transportation projects by TAMC, generating an estimated $20 million a year for 30 years.
The County Board of Supervisors approved the ballot measure July 19.