By Donna Westfall – October 22, 2017 – The question to ask is, “Did anything get accomplished with this latest meeting?”

Who organized this event?  Caltrans District 1, Matt Brady welcomed and introduced all these folks:

Victor Bjelajac, from Calif. State Parks, Larry Depee from CHP, John Driscoll from Congressman Jared Huffman’s office, Chris Howard, Chair of Board of Sup’s, Jaime Matteoli also from Caltrans District 1 and Matt Schmitz from Federal Hwy Admin.

The meeting took place at the Del Norte County Fairgrounds. There were questions and answers.

Chuck Blackburn wanted to know what would happen if a major catastrophe took place and took out the road, what happens next? The response was that a new road would be constructed within a few days by digging into the hillside.

And, if you believe that I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

Questions about alternate routes:

Even though there was a stakeholders group that met for years that identified 6 possible alternate route, no one route was picked. Therefore, it would be another 5-7 years for that study to be done.

Bottom line: They will run a Cost benefit analysis which is due to be completed in January or February, 2018.  In the analysis it will probably show that spending $2 million a year far outweighs plunking out more money than that.

It’s a National – US Highway -with current price tags varying from $300 million to $1.2 billion for a new, alternate road.

Is there any ray of sunshine on the horizon?  Perhaps.

At this coming Board of Supervisors meeting Oct. 24th, Sup. Bob Berkowitz says he’s going to unveil a new plan.

Let’s see what he comes up with.