Valley-to-coast drivers loving the new 46
From the Bakersfield Californian
By James Burger – Bakersfield Californian – Vivian Logan has been able to drive Highway 46 to the Central Coast a few times since New Year’s Day 2010. But it is never easy for her.
Two years ago, a head-on collision near the Kern-San Luis Obispo county line claimed the life of her husband, Carl “Curtis” Logan, put her in the hospital for six months, killed two people she didn’t know and will keep the man who caused it behind bars for most of a decade.
So she drives cautiously, staying in the slow lane and watching oncoming traffic closely.
“I think that the fact I didn’t remember the accident was a blessing to me,” Logan said. “I don’t remember anything before I woke up in Stanford Medical Center.”
It’s tragic stories like Logan’s that spawned a years-long, expensive effort to “Fix 46.”
More than $103 million in state and federal money has widened long stretches of the two-lane route to four lanes. The most recent project segment was opened to the public earlier this month.
Logan said the road does seem safer. Work has added a wide divider between the two directions of traffic, allowed for speed limits that don’t fluctuate and created room for people to pass slower traffic.
It’s something former state Sen. Dean Florez, a chief “Fix 46” cheerleader, is proud of having accomplished with many other partners.
“I’m really pleased that we kept our promise that the four lanes would occur,” he said. “It’s like night and day. It’s not the old Highway 46. It shows that government can work when we’re all working in the same direction.”
It has taken 14 years of campaigning and careful hoarding of funds by local transportation planners and Caltrans to get 27 miles of Highway 46 widened.
The route is a major economic and recreation connection between the San Joaquin Valley and Central Coast, carrying tourists and heavy truck traffic through the coastal mountains.
Read full story in the Californian
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