Crow Canyon Closed for Repairs Through the Summer
Crow Canyon Road near San Ramon is closed to through traffic until early August to make further progress on storm damage repairs and previously planned safety improvements, the Alameda County Public Works Agency (ACPWA) announced on May 10.
The closure extends from Norris Canyon Road to Bollinger Canyon Road. A spokesperson for ACPWA was not able to confirm the current impact, but in 2012, studies found that 16,000 to more than 18,000 vehicles traveled on Crow Canyon on any given day.
The new closure comes after Crow Canyon Road reopened on February 10 following repairs caused by the heavy rains back in late December and January, but construction delays had been frequent as other repair work in the area was completed.
“The road is being closed to facilitate construction of the second phase of roadway and embankment repairs due to storm damages,” according to the agency’s website.
A call to ACPWA’s construction hotline revealed that local residents and emergency vehicles can still traverse the closed section, though with some lane closures as work proceeds. A sign just north of Norris Canyon Road warns against travel on Crow Canyon Road by anyone else, and those violating the closure can be ticketed
Phase II includes installing retaining walls along parts of the road. Phase 1 included road resurfacing from East Castro Valley Boulevard to Cold Water Drive, installing road pullouts for police cars monitoring traffic, signs telling of legal and safe speeds, adding guardrails, adding pedestrian ramps, replacing damaged culverts, and improving traffic signals.
Much of Phase 1 had been planned before the storms, and ACPWA combined those road safety improvements with emergency repairs made necessary by the storms.
Starting sometime in the summer, though, ACPWA plans to move on to Phase III, which will result in further road closures. However, current plans are to leave one lane open during the day and the entire road open at night, according to Amber Lo, ACPWA Principal Civil Engineer.
The roadway from milepost 5.25 to the county line will be repaired and resurfaced, new guardrails installed, shoulders widened, a centerline rumble strip installed, signage and striping improved, and drainage culverts replaced in that area.
Next fall, Phase IV will add more guardrails to the road.