VIDEO. As many of you know, the evening of March 12 brought significant traffic delays to many frustrated residents of Half Moon Bay and the greater Coastside. The unexpected closure of the Tom Lantos Tunnel on Highway 1 required Coastside residents who use that route to take Highway 92 instead. However, on 92 there was planned PG&E tree trimming with a lane closure occurring at the same time.Listen the HMB City Manager, Bob Nisbet, address the power and communication issues regarding, last Thursdays (3/14/19), Hwy 1 tunnel outage and the Hwy 92 tree cutting traffic jams.
Combined, these situations led to massive traffic delays, which could have been significantly reduced with better coordination and protocols among the agencies involved: Caltrans, the California Highway Patrol, and PG&E.
We wanted to let our community know that the City of Half Moon Bay is working with those agencies to take the necessary steps to ensure an appropriate level of coordination and communication in the future related to issues involving Highways 1 and 92. We have been in touch with staff from each of the agencies to express our concerns.
It’s clear that improved coordination and communication within and among Caltrans, the CHP, and PG&E is needed to ensure this type of situation does not recur. Caltrans has stated publicly that it intends to examine these circumstances, review its operational procedures, and determine how best to proceed in the future. The City fully supports and encourages Caltrans and the other agencies involved to do the same.
The City is working with the various agencies, along with San Mateo County, to determine how best to improve communications protocols to prevent unwarranted situations like this from happening again.