California: Richardson Grove’s old growth redwoods threatened by greedy road widening

This is the second of a two-part series examining the proposed fix of
U.S. Highway 101 near Richardson Grove, a bottleneck that has long
kept area businesses at a disadvantage when shipping in and out of the
area. Some business owners say the improvements proposed for a
one-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 101 at Richardson Grove are a matter
of survival, while others — mostly those in the immediate area — say
it will put them out of business. Pattie Watson, executive director of
the Singing Trees Recovery Center, said the project could threaten her
business. According to the report, construction of a cut slope and
300-foot-long retaining wall will alter the visual setting for
residents and visitors of the recovery center.

Watson and other
businesses in the project area are also concerned that stopped traffic
during the approximately 10 months of construction will have dire
consequences. “It will put us out of business,” said Dan Baleme, who
owns One Log House Espresso and Gifts. He said in the past, when
Caltrans has done preliminary work for the project, barricades were
set up in front of his business and sales decreased by 90 percent on
those days. The environmental impact report for the project came to be
after seven opponents of the project signed a petition requesting the
report. The Environmental Protection Information Center helped
distribute the petition, according to Executive Director Scott
Greacen. Greacen said the improvement project has nothing to do with
safety and doesn’t address bike and pedestrian access within the park,
a primary concern for EPIC. California State Park supervisor Steve
Horvitz said Monday that park officials are in the early stages of
studying the potential installation of a bike path within Richardson
Grove State Park. The bike path is independent from the Caltrans
project, and would entail connecting 1,700 feet of bike path to
existing trails within the park. On the safety side, Watson believes
that widening the highway will only encourage drivers of cars and
trucks to drive faster than they already do, despite Caltrans recently
lowering the speed limit to 35 miles per hour. That sentiment was
echoed by Baleme, who said he sees STAA trucks illegally passing
through the grove daily. He believes the improvements will only
nominally meet national standards, but are not significant enough to
prevent STAA trucks from continuing to cross into the lane of oncoming
traffic, and so won’t help safety.
http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_11294363

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