Western Railroad Discussion > Cajon Pass and Highway 138

Construction on the realignment of Highway 138 continues.  Next week will see the first of at least six planned short-term closures (7-10 days) while the contractor moves dirt from the large Summit cut to fill in low-spots on the rest of the realignment.  Next week's closure will not significantly alter the current highway and lookout spot at the Summit, although the large hill to the south will get shorter.  The big change will occur when they close the highway for 4-6 weeks this time next year.  That is when Summit will change considerably.  So if you want to get our "classic" Summit photos, do so this summer.

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Wow! That's a lot of progress already.
Is this going to be freeway-ish, or a two-lane highway? Wondering if we'll still be able to stop on the shoulder.
Thanks for the pix and update.

Did anyone actually ask for this relaignment?    Up here in Paso Robles. Caltrains is constantly coming into town, and telling us that they
need to "improve" our roads by changing the center divider, or putting in an overpass or something where no one in this whole city wants one.

IMHO, they are always inventing projects to keep their ppl busy and the union membership up.  I was a union member for years, and had no problem with ours, but I just hate caltrans ramming projects down ppls throats.

And also, what exactly is changing at the summit? 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/19/17 21:56 by pdt.

Found this, from last July:

http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/20160709/highway-138-project-to-start-next-month

from the link:
"this project actually will create an entirely new road, starting at about mile marker 17, according to Caltrans officials. The speed limit will be 55 mph, and all the curves in the new alignment will be designed to be taken at the speed limit. In the current alignment, drivers have to slow to 15-20 mph on some of the hairpin turns in the switchbacks."The current curved alignment is three miles long," said Bryce Johnston, Caltrans District 8 consultant and project manager. "The new alignment is two miles; that's how much the switchbacks add to the existing road."

There is a few reasons for this project. One of the reasons is there is a lot of traffic on this road coming from people living in the upper side of Hesperia using it for a short cut on their commute  to get to the I-15 instead of driving for miles down main street in Hesperia or using Ranchero Road of which there was a under pass built a few years ago under tracks by the Hesperia airport. The paving of the road following the tracks by Lugo also put this extra traffic on 138 in this area. The main reason for this project is they are going to build a big housing development in the Summit Valley of which most of the residents in Hesperia and Summit Valley opposed but it got through anyway. It doesn't make any sense to me to build more housing in a very high fire danger area, but at least they are planning ahead on the road infrastructure.

CS

bearease Wrote:
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> Wondering if we'll still be able to stop on the shoulder.

From the newspaper article linked below: ""The new highway will have full 12-foot lanes in each direction, plus full shoulders of 8 to 10 feet each." I wonder if Caltrans would build a pulloff for the foamers, er, a rest stop, at Summit?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/20/17 07:01 by CPR_4000.

Has there been a map showing the old alignment and the new one published?  That would be useful 
in seeing what they're going to do.

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

Will the new road still have easy connections to the roads to the north (Hill 582, Silverwood, etc.)?

Here's a write-up from the CalTrans District 8 web site: http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist8/documents/sr138/SR-138-EAST-ALIGNMENT-FACT-SHEET-082016.pdf

Posted from Android

I think it's safe to say no other Southern California pass has seen more changes than Cajon in the last ten years.   From double to tripe track, the daylighting of a tunnel, widening of I-15, major fires, and now this new road alignment and bridge.    Always something!    Hope Pentrex is out there doing some documentation.

SoCalCynic Wrote:
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> Here's a write-up from the CalTrans District 8 web
> site:
> http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist8/documents/sr138/SR-138
> -EAST-ALIGNMENT-FACT-SHEET-082016.pdf
>
> Posted from Android

Thank you for posting this link.  From what I can tell, this road is going to be seriously straightened out,
with shoulders added.  the few times I've been there, I knew it was a vary dangerous stretch of road and
this will certianly correct that.  And yes, it is needed.  Even we non-area residents know that.

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

If you're going to build thousands of new houses on the perimeter of a national forest, you have to improve the roads first.  Taxpayer dollars being spent on something that will primarily benefit housing and land developers.