City Councilmember reports good news on truck climbing lane; other highway work coming up

Tehachapi City Councilman Phil Smith has reported good news about one of the segments of the Highway 58 truck climbing lane projects.

In a recent Zoom meeting that officials with the city and Kern Council of Governments had with Caltrans officials, the agency pledged to fund the most easterly segment of the project and begin construction by 2026 — or perhaps as early as 2025, Smith said.

Previously the project was not expected to begin until early 2027, at the earliest.

As reported at a Tehachapi City Council meeting earlier this month, state Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, set up a meeting between local officials and the new Caltrans Director Tony Tavares, who was appointed to lead the state’s transportation agency last June.

City officials were encouraged in an initial meeting when, Smith said, Tavares said that Highway 58 is “an extremely significant route,” and Caltrans District 9 Director Ryan Dermody said it is “the most important route in District 9.”

Ahron Hakimi, executive director of the Kern Council of Governments — which is the county’s transportation planning agency — and Tehachapi City Manager Greg Garrett have also been involved in the meetings, Smith said, along with city Development Services Director Jay Schlosser.

The segment of the project that could begin earlier

is the most easterly of the two planned truck passing lanes on the eastbound side of Highway 58 between Bakersfield and Tehachapi, Smith said.

The lower elevation segment is part of Caltrans District 6, headquartered in Fresno, and details of when that part of the project might move forward are not currently available. District 9 is headquartered in Bishop.

Smith has been serving the Tehachapi City Council since 1986 and as a member of the Kern COG Board of Directors since 1995. He has advocated for improvements to Highway 58 — and specifically the truck climbing lanes.

UPCOMING WORK

On Thursday, Caltrans reported upcoming work that may delay traffic in the Tehachapi area. Projects include:

Emergency slab replacements and dig outs in multiple locations between Woodford-Tehachapi Road and three miles east of Cameron Canyon Road in and near the city. The outside eastbound and westbound lanes in each location will be closed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, during construction. Work is scheduled from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday, and overnight from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Dig outs, according to Caltrans, are used when the pavement has failed in localized areas to an extent that the underlying support materials have disintegrated, become infiltrated with fine-grained materials, or otherwise lost their load-carrying capacity.

On Highway 58 near the city, there will be maintenance work on the Sand

Canyon undercrossing at exit 156 and also on the overhead railroad crossing east of exit 167 near the town of Mojave.

Maintenance work is also set to take place at the drain just west of exit 149 in the city. Work on these projects is scheduled from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday, and overnight from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Also in Tehachapi, on Highway 202 between Sierra Vista Drive and West Tehachapi Boulevard, crews will perform utility work Wednesday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.