Alternate routes need more thought when options limited

QWhen cops close a road due to an accident, do they give any thought to how drivers are supposed to cope with the situation?

A few weeks ago on a Friday before 4 p.m., there was a serious crash on Highway 4 between Discovery Bay and Stockton. The only warning eastbound were cones across the road, two police cars behind them with their lights flashing and a portable electronic sign at Discovery Bay Boulevard that said: “Accident, CA 4 closed, use alt route.”

Because of the scarcity of routes across the Delta, the only eastbound alternates available were on Byron Highway to Interstate 205 at Tracy or Route 160 to Rio Vista Highway. Either way, by the time you got to the roadblock, the alternates were 3 miles behind you, back the way you came.

Highway 4 gets a lot of traffic, including many trucks. For the 3 miles from the turnoff for Byron Highway, the last possible alternate, traffic was at a crawl. It took 25 minutes to make those 3 miles, and, of course, at the end of it, all you could do was turn around and crawl the 3 miles back.

What made it perfect was that no U-turns are allowed at Discovery Bay Boulevard. All you could do was drive into the residential streets and look for a legal turn. Discovery Bay itself is a complete dead end. No way in or out except on 4.

It was a miracle any trucks got turned around at all. In that 3-mile stretch, Highway 4 is mostly two lanes and there are few places a truck could turn. It took pulling on to the right shoulder, hoping for a break in traffic and swinging around left onto the opposite shoulder — a very tight turn for a 53-foot trailer trying to merge back into already jammed westbound traffic. — Rick Seim, Stockton A Now your questions: Q Why block the road at an intersection where you can’t make a U-turn? Why not at least allow turns for the du- ration of the closure? I hope the explanation isn’t that there really isn’t room to make a Uturn at that intersection. There was more room anywhere else.

Why no notice where the alternate routes were? Why make everyone waste an hour in crawling traffic just to get to and from the roadblock? And what was the plan supposed to be to get all those trucks turned around? It sure didn’t look like there was a plan. — Rick Seim A This was not a fun Friday and you raise valid concerns. But this is one of the most difficult challenges facing the CHP in an event like this — a serious crash on a busy narrow highway during a Friday commute — and on a road where trucks can’t easily make U-turns.

The CHP will review its options, but getting portable warning signs up, traffic cones in place and patrol cars in position is part of the plan.