All posts by Michael F Ballard

Michael F Ballard is the author and administrator of the Southern California Regional Rocks and Roads website, https://socalregion.com, since 1995. I have been studying the geology and highway history throughout southern California for most of my life. I am also the President of the Ridge Route Preservation Organization. Founder of the Historic Highway 99 Association of California, https://historic99.org .
Website News

Copyright Notice

As it seems it is necessary, I am posting this reminder that all original works on this site are copyrighted by Michael F Ballard. A notice has been posted since the 1990’s regarding this, ever since a newspaper plagiarized three pages on this site and printed them verbatim, without my permission. It is still up to the person to respect it regardless of this notice.

While I’m not on Facebook, I have found a page regarding US 99, Historic US Highway 99, that has many images from this site, as well as RidgeRoute.Org, that were posted without my permission, with no credit given, and without my knowledge. I find this very disappointing and disheartening. Some of the images are also posted with incorrect information, which also also a problem. The people posting these images should also know better.

Copyright Statement

Advocacy, Caltrans, District 11, Highways, I-805, North Park, Road Signs, Roads, San Diego, San Diego County

Caltrans Sign Change

2 Comments
NB I-805 at El Cajon Blvd

In June 2019, I sent a message to Caltrans requesting a change in the signage on I-805 northbound at El Cajon Blvd. The sign didn’t reflect the lane assignments and can be confusing to motorists not familiar with the interchange. In November, I got a response and they will not only change the sign but will move where it is placed. I thought that was pretty cool. Once again, it takes so little to make a positive change. I encourage others to do so as well.

My message:

CSR Ticket Number:757911
Date Submitted:2019-06-17 14:04:28
Date Completed:2019-11-12 00:00:00
California County:San Diego
State Highway Route:805
Nearest Town or City:San Diego
Nearest Cross Street:El Cajon Blvd
Mode of Transportation:Motorcycle
Direction of Travel:Northbound
Date & Time Situation Noticed:2019-06-17   12 noon – 1 pm
Type of Situation:Signs – Missing, Broken, Blocked or Down
Description of Situation:NB El Cajon Blvd exit sign is missing an EXIT ONLY tab and optional lane arrow. It can be confusing to motorists that don’t realize there are two possible lanes to use to exit at El Cajon Blvd when heading NB.
Geographic Location of Situation:On NB I-805 approaching El Cajon Blvd

Caltrans response:

Message from Customer Service Liaison: Our Traffic Operations Engineer reviewed this issue and provided the following response. You can expect to see a project in the near future. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Traffic Safety & Operations (South Region) is recommending the existing overhead panel be upgraded and re-positioned to centered above the two lanes of the exit ramp and also, additional sign be installed at the northbound I-805 exit ramp to El Cajon Boulevard per California Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (CA MUTCD), 2014 Edition. We will initiate a Minor B project to upgrade the existing overhead panel and forward a request to Operations Support to install “RIGHT LANE MUST EXIT SIGN” and 8-inch solid white line approaching the exit ramp.

Highways, Ridge Route, Roads, Updates, US 99

Ridge Route Update

From the Ridge Route Preservation Organization:

Finally, some good news! While it is not finalized at the time of this writing, our Volunteer Service Agreement is nearing completion. We got a copy today to review and so far, things look quite promising. We will also be getting a key to the gate, which means we will have access to the road. Our first act, after getting the key, is to do a preliminary survey of the road to assess the general condition of the roadway and determine what needs to be worked on prior to the upcoming rainy season.

What this means is that we are planning to do work on the Ridge Route in late Spring 2020, after the rains have subsided. Details on this event will be posted once we get a bit more information together and work out what the event will entail. The agreement does have a few stipulations, mostly regarding how our events will be held and what we can do during them. One of those is that we need to give a list of all attendees prior to an event, as such we will be expecting all persons attending to let us know before they attend.

So, things are looking up for the Ridge Route. Work is still in progress regarding Forest Service maintenance, right-of-way, and land ownership issues. Those will take a while but I have confidence they will be resolved in due time. In the mean time, plan on going on the road in late Spring 2020 and prepare to work!

Updates, Website News

Site Update – Part 2

Aside 2 Comments

After figuring out what the problem was regarding this site not coming up in basic searches such as “Ridge Route” and “Santa Clarita Geology”, I am pleased to say that it looks like things are getting slowly back to normal.

The problems seemed to stem from “robots.txt” blocking search engines from indexing this site. I am not sure how or why that happened, as it wouldn’t be something I’d do, at least not on purpose. I corrected that and went back to Google Webmaster Tools to see what I could do. I used to have the site on there, but had been removed for some reason. After adding it back in and forcing a reindexing, I found a few more errors, which have since been corrected.

The meta keyword and description data also needed to be updated as WordPress deleted the information from my site, which it does whenever there is an update to WordPress itself. Modifying these has helped put the site out there a bit more.

I’ll stay more vigilant in my site monitoring to make sure this sort of problem doesn’t happen again. At least now I know what the issue is and can correct it. Thank you all for continued support for this site.

California, Disaster, District 8, Earthquake, Fault, Geology, Highways, Inyo County, Ridgecrest, Roads, San Bernardino County, SR-178, Trona, Updates

Ridgecrest – Part 2 Now Online

Part 2 of my Ridgecrest earthquake field trip is now online. This time, I also won’t forget to add a link!

Ridgecrest Earthquakes of July 4-5, 2019 – Part 2