Officials say Highway 1 congestion will get better: Caltrans engineers on-site after city, county complaints that paving project caused major traffic backu

That, combined with “some really nice days” on the coast, caused extreme traffic backup May 18-22, particularly during the evening commute, Chidester said.

“Last week was really rough … some of the worst traffic we’ve ever seen over a sustained period of time,” he said.

After an influx of resident complaints, city, county and state leadership intervened, and Caltrans put an engineer on-site watching traffic and making adjustments to the traffic lights last Friday evening, Chidester said.

In an emailed statement, Caltrans Public Information Officer Jeneane Crawford said the agency’s operation team members worked over the weekend to adjust signal timing between Moss Beach and Half Moon Bay and noted the loop sensors had been deactivated to allow for expansive construction work that includes repaving, the installation of Class II bike lanes and crosswalk striping, among other improvements.

“The sensors will be reactivated once the electrical work has been completed at each intersection,” Crawford said in the statement. “Caltrans will continue adjusting the timing to optimize traffic flow.”

San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller, who represents the coastside, said in a press release May 22, that it was integral Caltrans addressed the issue ahead of the Memorial Day weekend. The agency responded to his concerns, Mueller said.

“I asked just for them to send out personnel to actually be at the site and direct people through the intersection,” he said. “They later did actually commit to that, as well as sending engineers out to adjust the traffic light timing based on traffic.”

The increase in Caltrans personnel helped ease Memorial Day weekend traffic, and car flow moving into this week had improved, Chidester said. He’s hopeful the intervention will allow for less traffic backup as construction moves south into the Main Street and State Route 92 intersections.

“I’m confident that we developed the right understanding last week and that’s why they made the changes that they did,” Chidester said.

Mueller said his expectation is that Caltrans’ response will correspond to the level of seriousness of the complaints, and he emphasized the importance of communication for all public agencies doing roadwork along integral coastal arteries like Highway 1 or State Route 92.

“Any time any public agency touches a public roadway on the coastside, be it the 92 or the 1 … people really have to have it on their minds this is the only route people have to take to get from point A to point B,” he said.