Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Rep. Cunneen calls for strategy on Highway 17 road closures

Commuters, mountain residents tired of delays

Cooperation needed

By Jeff Kearns

Santa Cruz Mountain-area residents and officials from the California Highway Patrol and Caltrans met recently to figure out a better plan for dealing with prolonged closures on Highway 17.

The meeting, which was organized by state Assemblyman Jim Cunneen, comes after mountain residents complained to Cunneen's office about two unrelated incidents that caused massive delays on the highway, which can be a nightmare to drive even during normal commutes.

CHP officers shot and killed a 21-year-old Pittsburg man near the summit on April 21, following a long high-speed chase through Los Gatos and parts of San Jose. A lane closure lasted for several commute hours.

Three days later, CHP officers found a bloodstained Fremont man on the side of Highway 17 in Los Gatos. He later confessed to murdering his wife and dumping her body near the summit. A lane closure caused a traffic backup that lasted for hours.

During the backup, some children were stranded for hours at Lexington Elementary and other schools, waiting for parents to pick them up. Bob Hines, a spokesperson for Cunneen, said that school officials and the CHP are working on a better notification system to stay in touch with each other and notify parents during emergencies."There needs to be better cooperation," Hines said.

Highway 17 is scheduled to be getting changeable advisory signs for the southbound lanes at Lark Avenue by the end of the year as part of the Silicon Valley Smart Corridor project. Currently, Caltrans sets up mobile signs by the roadside to flash warnings to motorists during emergencies. There are also signs on Highway 85 before Highway 17, but not on Highway 17 itself.

Another trouble spot is admitting mountain residents to the area when the highway is closed. After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, Santa Cruz residents caravaned across the mountains after telling police they lived in the mountains. In the future, mountain residents may be identified by special stickers that CHP officers can use to allow access to residents. Also, propane-delivery trucks will be reclassified as emergency vehicles to guarantee that they have access to mountain residents.

CHP Lt. Jeff Williams says part of the problem last month was due to a wrong number listed in some phone books. After the San Jose CHP office changed its phone number last year, GTE listings continued to show the old number. Because of this, many residents couldn't get through to the authorities.

Many residents also complained that when the road was closed, southbound traffic was turned around too far north--at Highway 9--when the road was open all the way up to the Alma Bridge interchange.

Williams says this has been standard operating procedure for the CHP because when the highway climbs southbound out of Los Gatos, it turns into a narrow chute that can block emergency-vehicle access. If the road is closed at Highway 9, however, emergency vehicles have no problem getting up the hill.

From now on, Williams said, the CHP will do what it can to turn traffic around at the Alma Bridge interchange. He also said that enforcement is at an all-time high on Highway 17, which carries more than 60,000 cars over the mountain each day.

More meetings are planned to follow up on the proposals. For more information, call the San Jose CHP office. The correct number is 467-5400.

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