Category Archives: San Bernardino County

Blue Cut Fire and Other Wildfire Information

With all the wildfires propping up lately, it is important to stay on top of the news. Your local newspaper and tv stations should be able to give updated information, but you can also get it directly from the agencies involved. I highly recommend the sites listed below as they can give more detailed information about what is going on and are usually updated regularly.

Geospatial Multi-Agency Coordination (Fire incident mapping) 
http://www.geomac.gov/

Incident Information System (Mapping and Detailed Incident Reports)
http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/

Caltrans Road Conditions
http://www.dot.ca.gov/cgi-bin/roads.cgi

California Highway Patrol  Traffic Incident Information (Gives very detailed reports on how these fires affect roadways)
http://cad.chp.ca.gov/

If you have any websites that you would like to share – Please send us feedback or use the comments for this post.

Blue Cut Fire

Fire Perimeter Map from InciWeb as of 8/17/2016 at 8:22 am

In regards to the current fires in the Cajon Pass, I plan to assess the damage to the highways myself once the area is clear. From what I understand so far, it looks like most of the wooden railing along US 66 / 91 / 395 in the pass may be gone, in addition to the historic Summit Inn restaurant at Cajon Summit. Other structures, not associated with the roadway, have also burned. According to CHP, a railroad bridge in the pass has burned, the Alray UP where former US 66 / 91 / 395 passed below. Please stay clear of the Cajon Pass for the duration of this fire.

DETOURS:

If you need to head north toward I-15 and I-40 near Barstow, I recommend taking I-10 East to State 62 East to State 247 North to Barstow. From there, you will connect with I-15 and I-40 just west of their junction. State 247 is a two lane roadway and may be busier than usual, so use caution.

All other traffic should use State 14 through Santa Clarita and the Antelope Valley to connect with points to the north/west of I-15.

Image of the Week – 11/29/2015

Out in Rancho Cucamonga inspecting the Sierra Madre Fault.
Out in Rancho Cucamonga inspecting the Sierra Madre Fault.

Old Rialto Ave and Arrow Route in San Bernardino, CA

Sometimes when a road gets realigned, a portion of the old roadway remains as an access road. This was the case when a small section of Rialto Ave (Arrow Highway/Route) was realigned in 1961 between Rancho Ave and Mt Vernon Ave. This realignment left behind a short span from the 1940’s. The bridge doesn’t have a date stamp nor is it still in the county bridge logs, so an exact date is tougher to find. Still, this bridge has a fine example of bridge rail from that era and is a good find.

Detail of railing
Detail of railing
Bridge over Lytle Creek with the realignment in the background.
Bridge over Lytle Creek with the realignment in the background.

Highway Resources Page

I’ve recently added a new section to the socalregion website. I noticed the site was lacking in resources for local roadways. In particular, information on how to contact various local agencies for road projects, logs, and maintenance. With this in mind, I’ve added a new page to help others get their roads fixed and find out more information about those roadways. I’ve called it the “Southern California Highway Resources” page, which can be found on the Southern California Highways page and via this link.

Southern California – Defined?

This website started off covering a small area, the Santa Clarita Valley. I later started a second website for the San Diego area. Both sites were somewhat limited in scope. Now, with those sites combined, I’ve also increased the area that the website covers. The new name for the site, Southern California Regional Rocks and Roads seems to state a much larger area. What really is Southern California and what does part of it does this website really cover?

The region, Southern California, or So Cal by some, varies by definition. My definition isn’t exactly a standard one either but I think it is the best fitting one. Southern California is usually defined as the whole of Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, western Riverside, and San Diego Counties. This constitutes much of the populated section as well as the area west (or south) of major mountain ranges. This definition leaves out quite a large area, however. It really should be “Coastal Southern California”. How do I then define Southern California and what area I plan to cover with this website? I personally define Southern California as the area south of the 119 degree line, which tends to define the northern boundaries of San Luis Obispo, Kern, and San Bernardino Counties. This site, however, will cover a smaller portion of that region. This website will cover, eventually, the region encompassing all of Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, southern Kern, San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange, Imperial, and San Diego Counties.

I’ve sometimes termed this website to be a “monster”. Why do I? Every time I think it is “done”, I come up with more projects to expand the site. There is a lot to cover here in Southern California and I intend to do the best job that I can for the scope of the site. Defining those boundaries will help to at least partially limit the site’s growth.