Valley commuters received ‘nothing’ about dam project’s impact on California freeways

Jesse Torrez’s daily commute between Los Baños and San Jose, consistently ranked among the worst in the country, takes him past the giant retention tank known as San Luis Reservoir, which hugs the shoreline and even crosses Highway 152 on its way to Pacheco Pass.

“Sometimes you can practically reach out and touch (the water),” Torrez said.

For the past two years, Torrez has taken note of the ongoing construction activity around the 2 million acre-foot reservoir. He’s seen heavy machinery working on the earthen dam that towers over the road and dump trucks hauling tons of material. He knew something big was happening.

But not once — at least not until I became the bearer of bad news — did Torrez have any knowledge or understanding that federally approved plans to raise Sisk Dam and expand the capacity of the San Luis Reservoir would make his already grueling commute even worse.

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“It’s very depressing,” said the solar company executive. “I can’t imagine the disaster. I don’t even want to imagine it.”

The lane closures on Highway 152 on the east side of Pacheco Pass are the largest (and least discussed) impacts of work currently underway to strengthen Sisk Dam against an earthquake and, later, to add 130,000 feet of storage. The separate $1 billion projects envision raising the 3½-mile-long dam by 10 feet along its crest, for a total lift of 20 feet.

That’s where the road’s proximity to the reservoir becomes an issue. San Luis’ current high water level is 544 feet high. Near Cottonwood Creek on the lake’s north shore, the road’s elevation is 555 feet at its lowest point.

When the expansion project is completed, the reservoir’s new maximum water level would be 554 feet, about a foot below the road.

“Modifications are expected to be necessary to protect the roadway from wave action,” reads the project’s final Environmental Impact Report.

Considering that San Luis Reservoir is known for its winds and whitecaps, that seems like a safe assumption.

Lane closures required

To protect Highway 152 from flooding, the environmental impact report proposes raising the embankment 11 feet along the ⅔-mile stretch where it crosses Cottonwood Creek, along with other modifications at that site and at a nearby parking overlook.

Those modifications to 152 would take about two years and would occur simultaneously with the dam raise. Work is expected to begin in 2027. During the latter part of those two years, the four-lane highway would be reduced to one lane in each direction for “approximately 8 to 12 months during the scheduled construction period.”

Torrez frowned when told of the planned lane closures. His commute takes 90 minutes in the morning and 95 in the afternoon (“Those are very precise times because I do it every day,” he says), but only because he leaves home between 4 and 4:30 a.m. and leaves work at 2 p.m. to avoid the worst of the traffic.

Even then, traffic on the 152 is steady. Now imagine the bottlenecks that single lanes would create in a construction zone that is expected to last up to a year.

“That’s going to have a huge impact on a lot of people’s lifestyles,” Torrez said. “My schedule is my schedule. I don’t have any more hours left to give.”

When Deborah Lewis moved to Los Banos in 1989, she was one of the few residents who commuted across Pacheco Pass to work.

“It was me and one or two trucks on the road,” he said. “There was no one.”

Not so today. As a longtime City Council member, Lewis has witnessed the city’s transformation from a small farming town to a growing residential community of 47,000, largely due to Silicon Valley workers unable to afford the Bay Area’s sky-high housing prices. The same is true, on a smaller scale, of the nearby communities of Santa Nella and Gustine, located along Interstate 5.

Residents in the dark

Two years ago, when seismic work began at Sisk Dam, Lewis attended the groundbreaking ceremony organized by the Bureau of Reclamation. He doesn’t recall any mention of any lane closures or impacts on the busy highway.

“Nothing,” Lewis said. “There is no information being disseminated to our community about what is going to happen. I don’t want this to be a surprise to travelers.”

Modifications to the motorway are expected to begin from 2027, but a traffic control plan has not yet been drawn up. According to the vaguely worded environmental report, temporary signs will be installed to warn motorists of lane closures “at least a month in advance to plan delays or alternative routes.”

That’s funny. For commuters in the central San Joaquin Valley, there are no alternative routes. The only other freeway leading into the Bay Area — Interstate 580 over the Altamont Pass — is hours away and even more congested.

Henry Garcia, the Bureau of Reclamation’s project manager for the Sisk Dam, is sympathetic. Every night when he leaves the work site, simply turning right onto 152 toward Los Banos is no easy task.

“We want to work with Caltrans and our partners to minimize impacts,” Garcia said. “How can we do this with the least possible impact to the public? It’s a challenge on 152. There’s not a lot of room to do the work that needs to be done.”

Construction of Sisk Dam has already forced campgrounds, picnic areas and a boat launching ramp in the San Luis Reservoir State Preserve Area to close for a decade. Boaters must launch at Dinosaur Point, which forces them to make a left turn in the wrong direction in an area known for high speeds and fog.

But the biggest headache, the restriction of Highway 152 over the Pacheco Pass for up to a year, a nightmare for travelers, has been kept secret.