Wednesday, August 15th, County Officials along with the CEO of Rock Force Construction, met with over 100 local residents and addressed concerns related to the Lake Gregory Dam Construction project. The project, slated to be finished in spring of 2019, has significantly impacted Crestline residents, especially those living in San Moritz, eastern Lake Gregory, Dart Canyon and Valley of the Moon. The closure of Lake Drive in the dam area has caused detours, traffic delays and issues with school buses. According to officials at the meeting, things are likely to get worse before they get better.
Aside from current concerns, the next phase of the project stands to add more stress to the community. Up to 120 trucks a day (for a duration of 60-90 days) bringing dirt from Colton will be starting dirt moving operations near the end of the month. The trucks will bring a load up the mountain, down Lake Gregory Drive, around San Moritz to the Edelweiss side of the construction zone. Once they dump their load, they will return to the San Moritz parking lot to be reloaded with the dredged dirt from “Mount San Moritz”, returning to Colton, then coming back up. Officials estimate that each truck will be spaced a few minutes apart, depending on load/unload times and traffic between Crestline and Colton. This operation may also be impacted by the current repaving project on Highway 18, adding to traffic volume and delays.
Jim Huff, a local resident, spoke at the meeting and shared concerns about the traffic impact on Lake Gregory drive. “Pulling out onto Lake Gregory Drive is already practically a suicide mission, with most cars doing 45 mph and motorcycles doing 50. If you add this many trucks to the traffic volume, we might never get out of our street.”
Officials stated that the trucks will not be back to back, ” not like a train of trucks”, but that they will be spaced a few minutes apart, allowing traffic to nominally move in between loads.
Another agitated resident poignantly addressed the issue of the school buses for the above mentioned sub-communities of Crestline. She referenced the school district cancelling all school bus pick ups and drop offs in the area east of Dart Canyon’s “5 points” intersection and the instructions to have the children (K-12) walk to the San Moritz Parking Lot to board buses. “There’s no sidewalks, some kids have to walk up to 4 miles, cars are driving way too fast and there’s no room for the kids to walk safely anywhere along the route, but especially down the narrow strip of San Moritz Way, where two cars can barely pass.” She continued, “Why wasn’t this taken into consideration and what is the county doing to fix this?”
Other parents in attendance agreed and stated that this was their main concern. Officials speaking at the meeting assured all in attendance that they are in daily talks with the school district Superintendent to find a solution. Some of the solutions in the works are smaller buses, either chartered or provided by MARTA, to pick up the students at their regular bus stops and “ferry” them to the San Moritz stop where they can transfer to larger buses.
Additionally, residents asked for better signage at the closures, stating that multitudes of vehicles are driving up the dam, then turning around, unaware of the closure due to inadequate signage. Officials responded by stating that once a motorist encounters that closure in that particular manner, “they won’t be doing that again.”
Striping on San Moritz Way, San Moritz Drive and no parking signs along both routes were asked for by multiple residents. Officials indicated that due to the time frame that the widening needed to happen to facilitate the dam construction starting on time, that these and other continued improvements are in the works.
Residents wishing to be included on further updates to the dam project can register for alerts at www.abetterlakegregory.org. The website also has a ton of information including schedules, graphics, FAQ’s, project news and updates.
There is also a hotline where residents can ask questions and share concerns. That number is (909) 294-3977. A few question and answer excepts and in depth interviews with officials at the meeting are featured in the video report below.
This report has been brought to you by The Crestline Chamber of Commerce, Rustique Furniture, Liberation Therapies and Nancy Wallace Attorney at Law.
Thanks for covering this event. Pretty big deal for Crestlinians. I thought the presentation was very professional and I was impressed with the number of County staff who attended to answer all specific questions. One of my primary questions was handled prior to the meeting by the Parks Director, Beatha Davis. I was puzzled about the management company of the Lake not accepting the County pass granted to disabled veterans. The State has a similar one called Distinguished Veterans Pass. The Lake management did not seem to know the distinction between a Veteran discount and a pass for 100% disabled veteran which grants free access.Ms. Davis indicated that she would correct that oversight.
Great Report. I wasn’t able to get to the meeting.
Thanks Raymond Ray.