Letter to the Editor: South Bypass Waste of Money; Will 'Pierce the Heart of Ramona'

The following is a Letter to the Editor from Ramona resident Joe Minervini

Greetings,

As you are all aware, CALTRANS has recently distributed the Project Development Team Report (Draft) for Improvement of Highway 67 and Highland Valley Intersection.

Basically, it reviews the usual super-competent and painstaking CALTRANS efforts on planning improvements for our California Highways, more specifically their plans for improving the Intersection of Hwy 67 and Highland Valley/Dye Rd. They, however, sometimes rely on poor local input.

On page 8, Section 4B of the above report, it states that the  2040 PM level of service (LOS), of the planned  improved intersection will improve from a  level F to Level D. This dismal forecast "...assumes that Dye Street is constructed as part of the Ramona Southern Bypass."

So what happens if the South Bypass is never constructed? Hell, nobody can give me a straight answer as to how to handle the South Bypass's future intersection of Dye Street/ Mussey Grade Road with Highway 67. Will it be a three-level overpass in Ramona? Just like in L.A.?

I have been beating my drum against the Southern Bypass for years. Due to the past leadership on our Ramona Community Planning Group (RCPG) and their  Transportation sub-committees, we still have the South Bypass on the books.  Currently, CALTRANS  would have designed more extensive improvements to the Intersection of Highway 67 and Highland Valley if the South Bypass plan did not exist.

The ill-conceived Ramona South Bypass plan will also diminish any CALTRANS improvements needed for the congested intersections of Main and 14th Streets and Main Street and Montecito Rd. If the South Bypass is ever completed, it will kill many of the remaining businesses on Main Street.

I recently let the Ramona Chamber of Commerce know this fact and despite Dawn Perfect and Carol Fowler's insistence on thinking the South Bypass is a good idea;  I have mentioned before, "What part of the formula: 'Traffic Count = Customers,' do you not understand?"  

The South Bypass will also send industrial roads through quiet residential neighborhoods and pierce the Heart of Ramona's Valley of the Sun.

Thanks to the South Bypass, the County and SANDAG will soon be blowing away more than $10 million on one part of the South Bypass called the "Dye Road Extension." The  $10 million plus "Dye Road Extension" does nothing to help the traffic congestion in Ramona. It's a road "improvement" that starts from nowhere and goes to nowhere.  What a waste of money... the 1$0 million would've long ago  paid for the improvements to the long time  worst traffic problem in Ramona (Highway 67 and Highland Valley) and it would have happened years ago.

Over the last 20 years, how many of you Ramonans wish you didn't have to wait so long at the traffic light on Dye Road when you are anxious to get home after a long day of work?

Listen RCPG members: IT'S NOW TIME to review your "Top 10 Road Priority Project List" and eliminate any project from the "list" that has to do with the South Bypass. Because of poor local input, CALTRANS will continue to throw the South Bypass in our face as an excuse to not improve the intersections of Highway 67 and Montecito Road, and Highway 67 and 14th Street for optimal traffic flow.  

Thanks to former RCPG'S, CALTRANS was ill-advised and we all screwed up the last time the intersection of Highway 67 and Highland Valley was improved in the early '90's... and it looks like we're screwing up again. Don't blame CALTRANS, they rely on our local input as well as our own County's Department of Public Works.

Lastly, to the past, current, freshman and future members of the Ramona Community Planning Group... remember, before you vote on anything that seriously affects the people of Ramona, talk to many of them outside Stater Bros.,  then be brave enough to stand up and speak your piece like that rodeo guy does... bless him. You got elected, but do your research, please.

I will debate on any forum the merits of the South Bypass with anyone with the courage on the RCPG, SANDAG, County of San Diego Planning Department,   Dianne Jacob, etc., if they would like to be enlightened.

For those of you Ramonans that would like to know, the completed price tag for the Ramona South Bypass is more than $75 million dollars. Who can tell me that the South Bypass will ever happen?

Joe Minervini