ON THE COVER
An aerial photograph of U.S. Highway 101 between Eureka and Arcata during a recent high tide. Photo by Mark McKenna
Racing the Rise
Caltrans and the daunting timeline for protecting 101 from the impacts of climate change By Elaine Weinreb
newsroom@northcoastjournal.com
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nyone who has ever driven south on U.S. Highway 101 between Arcata and Eureka during a storm at high tide can’t help but notice how close the water comes to the highway. Sea level rise, which scientists assure us is now inevitable, will only make things worse. The only questions are how much worse and when. If and when the ocean covers the 101 corridor between Eureka and Arcata, nobody will be able to say the issue hadn’t been on Caltrans’ radar. Whether the agency will have actually done anything, however, remains to be seen. The encroaching waters were the focus of an Oct. 27 public presentation by Caltrans officials. While District 1 Deputy Director Brad Mettam, Climate Change Branch Chief Clancy DeSmet and Project
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Manager Jeff Pimentel tried their best to put a good spin on the issue, what was largely left unsaid is the realization there may not be enough time, money or scientific knowledge to deal with the looming crisis. “Humboldt is experiencing one of the fastest rates of sea level rise on the West Coast,” said DeSmet. “The rate of sea level rise has tripled since 1971. The past six years have been the warmest on record.” It’s hard to overstate the importance of this 6-mile stretch of freeway to Humboldt County lives and livelihoods. It not only sees an average of 41,500 vehicles traverse it daily, according to the Humboldt County Association of Governments, but also serves as a vital shipping corridor and connects vital emergency services. But while the exigent threat to the
NORTH COAST JOURNAL • Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021 • northcoastjournal.com
roadway that is the North Coast’s primary artery is clear, Caltrans’ is not known for its ability to get things done quickly. The Willits Bypass, for example, took 40 years to plan and build and the Safety Corridor Improvement Project remains decades in the works. In 2013, Aldaron Laird, of Trinity Associates, published a comprehensive analysis of how the rising seas would impact Humboldt Bay and, in a 2015 white paper, warned low-lying sections of the freeway could be inundated by 2050. Yet the first comprehensive plan for dealing with the corridor is not due until December of 2025 — four years from now and five years earlier than Caltrans had initially proposed when seeking California Coastal Commission approval for the project. But by then, the ocean, which already has reached the freeway once, during a storm
in 2005, will have already risen about a foot from its initial measurements made by Laird in 2015. And just because a plan has been put on paper does not mean that the agency is anywhere close to actually building the project, whether it is a renovated salt marsh or a raised causeway. The first stage of planning is theoretical and deals with issues such as whether the expected benefits come anywhere close to the costs involved in building the project, or how difficult it might be to get approval from the various regulatory agencies. Many alternatives are briefly examined and then thrown in the round file. Hank Seemann, deputy director of environmental services for the Humboldt County Public Works Department, explained the intricate process of planning
