Thumbnail image: The 197/199 Safe STAA Access project, which includes widening U.S. 199 and State Route 197 in several areas is scheduled for construction starting this spring. | Map courtesy of Caltrans The likelihood that further litigation will stall a long-awaited project to widen lanes and modify curves on State Route 197 and U.S. 199 is low, Caltrans District 1 representatives told Del Norte Local Transportation commissioners on Tuesday. The state transportation department expects to solicit bids for the 197/199 Safe STAA Access project in October with proposals coming in between Nov. 4 and Nov. 7, Project Manager David Melendrez said. Contract approval is expected in December and construction will start some time during the spring, he said. “It is moving forward. It has support from everyone in our district and it also has support from people in Sacramento [at a] pretty high level up there,” Melendrez told commissioners. The Caltrans representative said he did receive a call from a representative of “Friends of the River or something” and told him Caltrans would take every precaution possible to limit environmental impacts. “I don’t think there’s going to be any opposition,” Melendrez said. “I think that page has been turned, honestly.” Jen Buck, transportation engineer at Caltrans, agreed with him. “We did discuss this with our legal team who said they feel like the risk is also very low to none,” she said. “We’re pretty confident moving forward.” The 197/199 Safe STAA project is expected to go out to bid more than two and a half years after a federal judge lifted an injunction brought about by the local conservation group Friends of Del Norte. According to District 3 Supervisor Chris Howard, he and DNLTC Executive Director Tamera Leighton had first pitched the project to the California Transportation Commission in Sacramento about 18 years ago. State transportation commissioners allocated $51 million in funding toward the project its Aug. 15 meeting in San Diego, according to Melendrez. The 197/199 Safe STAA Access project focuses on seven locations. These include Washington Curve, three areas nicknamed the Patrick Creek Narrows and a fourth area also known as the Narrows on U.S. 199 and two areas near Ruby Van Deventer County Park on State Route 197. There will be curve corrections at all those locations, Melendrez said. Within the Narrows, Caltrans will move the rock wall in the area back about 8 feet in an effort to create 4-foot wide shoulders, Melendrez said. Caltrans also plans to replace the Middle Fork Smith River bridge on U.S. 199, which was constructed in 1924. “All of the working days for this project are really dependent upon this bridge location,” he said, adding that the California Department of Fish and Wildlife placed restrictions on when they could work during the winter. “We estimate that the work at this location will take approximately 485 working days. After that we have permanent erosion control and establishment, that’s another 250 working days — so a total of 735 working days for this project.” Melendrez said he expects significant blasting in the area, which will be subject to traffic control. The current plan is to close the road from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday when construction starts, he said. The goal is to keep any rock from entering the Smith River, Melendrez said, adding that Caltrans is also working with the National Marine Fisheries Service. F “Originally there was going to be no construction [allowed] during the winter and we’re like, ‘No, that’s not feasible.’” He said. “We worked with them: We can work during the winter, we just have restrictions when it’s raining. We are establishing catchment areas adjacent to those slopes to try to catch the rocks as they come down.” Crescent City Councilor Jason Greenough, one of the city’s two representatives on the Del Norte Local Transportation Commission, pointed out that the 197/199 STAA Safe Access project as been a long-time coming and is needed in the community. He argued that the corridor as it currently is constructed wasn’t safe for large trucks or the traveling public. By the time the project is finished, the State Route 197 and U.S. 199 corridor will be an STAA-approved highway, Melendrez said. “There should be no restrictions on federal trucks and other types of movement through this corridor,” he said. However, up until a judge in the U.S. District Court for Northern California in March 2023 ruled against them, Friends of Del Norte, the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) and the Center for Biological Diversity argued otherwise. The three conservation nonprofits won a preliminary injunction that stalled the project in 2014, questioning the adequacy of the environmental review process Caltrans and the National Marine Fisheries Service conducted. The state and federal agencies conducted another review of the STAA project’s environmental impact, issuing a new biological assessment in 2017 that considered potential impacts to both the Smith River and Rogue River basins, according to a March 6, 2023 Wild Rivers Outpost article. Friends of Del Norte and EPIC argued that Caltrans inadequately analyzed the risks that the project would lead to more accidents that would contaminate the Smith River. Even after the injunction was lifted in 2023, Friends of Del Norte representative Don Gillespie said he was worried that truckers would ignore the section of U.S. 199 through Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park that will be off limits to them. “That’s going to be a cluster because truckers that want to head south are not going to be happy driving northwest,” he told the Wild Rivers Outpost. On Wednesday, Greenough said he was happy that Del Norte County would “be able to join the rest of the country in modern road design.” Melendrez said he, too, was happy Caltrans delivered the project. “I’ve driven down this route many times traveling to and from Oregon and Washington,” he said. “And every time we drive this segment, we slow down and take our time because of all the curves and everything.”