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Soundwall Highway 13

On February 27, 2002, a large crowd arrived at Montera Middle School for a community meeting co-hosted by Caltrans and Councilperson Spees to discuss the proposed $2.8 million sound wall project on Highway 13. Within seconds of opening the meeting, Spees turned the community's anger into joy by announcing the outcome of the previous night's city council meeting: "There will be no sound wall on Highway 13."
Community organizers opposed to the project acknowledged that Caltrans' decision to abandon the project was the direct result of community energy and unity.

Instead of the sound walls, Caltrans is looking at a number of other short and longer term options, including double-double paned windows and caulking to take care of the interior noise, and rubberized paving material to dampen the exterior sound. Thirty-one homes qualify for the retrofit because their freeway noise exceeds the 68-decibel limit.

The audience's elation was somewhat short-lived, as the discussion moved from sound walls to a Caltrans plan to reduce fire danger along highway 13 through what sounded like a pretty aggressive vegetation management program. Referring to several citations from the fire department over the last decade, Caltrans described a plan to clear out a significant amount of brush along the highway, and trim most of the tree limbs up to 8 feet above ground. This brought a new round of groaning from the audience, most of whom are opposed to both the sound wall project and the vegetation management plan on the grounds of degradation to the lush scenery along the freeway. Spees said that it would be a high priority for the city and Caltrans to work together to balance the preservation of one of the state's most scenic highways against the hazards of unchecked fuel for fires.

Caltrans assured the audience (though most remained quite skeptical) that there would be ample public notice and opportunity for input before plans moved ahead. Spees committed to staying in close contact with Caltrans to make sure the community's interests were taken into account. Stay tuned!

In the summer of 2001, Caltrans presented residents along a small section of Highway 13 a solution to their problem with freeway noise: a $2.8 million sound wall. The project would build five walls: three along Mountain Boulevard from Kearney Avenue to El Caminito, and two across the freeway along Monterey Boulevard between Lieimert and Lincoln Way. The walls would be 14 to 16 feet tall. The 40 residents Caltrans says is directly affected were invited to a meeting, and among the few who came (11 households), the majority voted in favor of the wall, and the project was ready to proceed. "Not so fast," said a larger group of residents opposed to the project for many reasons. "We too are affected, and we should have a say." The group was successful in getting Caltrans to grant a second meeting, held February 27.

According to Caltrans, residents requested the walls 15 years ago. In 1989, the state developed a sound wall construction priority list, but much of the funding was diverted for seismic retrofitting. In 2001, Governor Davis made funds available to clear the backlog of this and other sound wall projects in the state, so Caltrans started putting pencil to paper.

Near the end of 2001, a task force was formed to stop the project. In February, more than 200 people turned up at a "learn the issue" meeting, which brought more political and media attention, which brought the level of political pressure needed to turn the project around.