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JAMUL
CURVES AND IMPROVEMENTS Jamul had it’s share of
treacherous roads and one of the worst was called the “Goat Lady’s
Curve”, west of downtown
Jamul. This short stretch of
road claimed it’s share of accident victims before it was straightened
and widened. It was poorly engineered
in its original design, even for the few slow moving vehicles of early
days (it followed an ancient cow path that once wandered through Jamul).
Stan Biggs in Feb 11, 1981 issue of Back
Country Trader wrote regarding this stretch of road “Perhaps just
the installation of a double yellow line through the most hazardous areas
would protect the lives of a few motorists - at least it would be an act
of good faith at a small budget expenditure.
(The present travel way is so narrow it will probably not
accommodate a second painted line without widening.)
But don’t count on Caltrans to do anything to help us, folks.
If you travel Highway 94 just remember to pray.”
Maybe that is where the bumper sticker started “Pray for me, I
drive Highway 94”. During this time money
was not being allocated for Highway 94.
It all went to the San Diego freeway system and only promises were
given to Highway 94 residents. Maybe
that is why the old timers are upset that we cannot get better roads now
while the money is available. Certainly
we have all paid our share of taxes to get better and safer roads. In 1983,
Caltrans opened bids for Highway 94 for widening, realignment and
channelization work to be done on two safety projects.
One of the project was at Lyons Valley Road on SR94
in Jamul. Prior
to this improvement it was a real bottleneck for people turning onto Lyons
Valley Road. The bid included a left-hand pocket on Highway 94 and .2 mile
roadway widening west that included the “Goat Lady’s Curve”.
This project broadened the intersection to 52 feet that included
both east and west shoulders. This turned out to be a major project as there were a lot of
large rocks to blast west of Lyons Valley Road. They would set a blast and traffic would have to wait
one-half hour and sometimes longer to get through.
Seems it took a very long time to finish this project, but it
solved two safety problem, one for the cars turning left onto Lyons Valley Road
and most importantly it made the “S”
curves wider, straighter and much safer.
The cost of this project was estimated at $225,000. This estimated cost would hardly cover the cost of the
environmental reports today. Again in 1988 Caltrans put out another bid for what
is called “Chiropractor or Killer Curve” and it took about 3 years to
finish. It was just before
Steel Canyon Road going east from Star Acre Lane to Rancho Miguel Road.
Some houses had to be torn down and a complete new alignment was
constructed, so traffic was not impacted much during construction.
The residents backed this project in most cases because of the high
number of deaths that had occurred. They
recognized it was needed for safety purposes.
Here again it was only a short stretch of highway, but imagine how
many lives it has saved over the years.
These were all
improvements that were backed and encouraged by Highway 94 Club.
We continue to support all safety improvements on Highway 94.
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