HIGHWAY DIVIDERS IN MORONGO VALLEY HAVE RESIDENTS IRATE

Lots of people are irate about the new temporary dividers going up in the median in Morongo Valley. This week, CalTrans started putting in temporary flexible traffic posts, or delineators, and painting solid double yellow lines on the pavement, to prevent drivers from making left-hand turns on the highway from East Drive on the west end of Morongo Valley, all the way up to the concrete dividers on the Yucca Grade. There are 10 turn pockets along the 6.3 mile stretch of highway where drivers can make legal left and U-turns. Comments on the dividers and their placements have ranged from “it’s insane” to “it’s making the road even more dangerous,” to asking why they are placed at roads that are rarely used, and why they block access to more heavily traveled roads. One businessman told Z107.7 that the semi-truck drivers that deliver his products, who used to turn left out of his parking lot to return to Interstate 10, can’t make a safe U-turn on the highway, and may stop delivering to his business entirely. Officer Alex Scott from the California Highway Patrol said the CHP pressured CalTrans to do something to help reduce the crashes and fatalities along that stretch of the highway. He said in the last four years, 18 people have died; with five people being killed in cross-over crashes just since January. CalTrans spokeswoman Joy Sepulveda said the delineators are a temporary measure, because “life is too precious to wait the two to three years that a study would require for a permanent divider.” She explained that the access points and turn pockets have been placed every three-quarters of a mile to make it fair for everyone, adding that if a turn pocket was placed at a heavily traveled road, it would make the next turn pocket farther away. Sepulveda said public input was not sought for the placement of the delineators, since it was an emergency project, but CalTrans will seek public input sometime in the future when it’s ready to go ahead with a permanent solution.