Southbound 87 to be repaved during closure this weekend
Q Repaved northbound Highway 87 is great, but is Caltrans going to fix the on-ramps? I use the Capitol Expressway on-ramp and it's a mess. It has cracked, uneven pavement, with potholes looking for axles to break, etc. And an annoyance, though not the worst problem, is that the stop line for the metering light hasn't been visible since I've lived in that area, well over 20 years now. – Tom Kelly
A Good to hear about the northbound repaving. Repaving of southbound 87 between 85 and 280 is scheduled for this weekend. Full closure of southbound lanes in this area starts at 9 p.m. today and is scheduled to end by 5 a.m., Monday.
Northbound ramps and auxiliary lanes have now been repaved, and should have been complete last Friday.
Southbound ramps and auxiliary lanes will be repaved following southbound repaving.
The project includes median concrete barrier replacement, and upgrades and replacement of drainage systems and electrical components.
Q As someone who uses his bicycle for errands around town, I am frequently troubled by obstacles blocking bike lanes: trash bins, piles of garden waste, cars, delivery vans, and workers' trucks parked in bike lanes. One of the most easily remedied are road signs, like “Road work ahead.” Work crews plop their sign in the middle of the bike lane with little thought to the risk they are placing on bicyclists forced into vehicle lanes to skirt the sign.
Why can't the city instruct its contractors to show courtesy and consideration in the placement of such signs? – Martin Delson
A I'll pass your comments on to the city.
Q In your Sunday article, you mentioned Mrs. Roadshow's frustration at a road diet. In early August, you referred to “traffic calming measures.” I'm with the missus: Reducing lanes and forcing the same number of cars into a smaller area, re-striping roads so that once-straight roads are now twisty, extending corners so cars line up and are slowed down waiting to make right turns…? These are calming? I get frustrated just thinking about them.
Two spots on Story Road and White Road used to be nice straight roads. They are now more like a chicane in a Formula 1 race track. When they first started this, I was riding with my dad and he commented that if someone were in a helicopter watching us from above, they'd think we were driving drunk, the way we're forced to veer left, then right, then left again. All these things are supposed to calm us down? – David Knoblich, San Jose
A Mrs. Roadshow didn't know the term “chicane” so she searched online and found a video from the F1 Education YouTube account that described it as “a series of corners on a circuit, normally taken at low speed, that includes at least two changes in direction.”