Kristin

And with the flipping of a calendar page, 2025 is in the rearview mirror. It was an eventful year. I retired from Circle A ranch in July, and haven’t missed either the daily grind or the cybersecurity field. My only remaining involvement is ACSAC (Annual Computer Security Applications Conference),  which will continue for a few more years. We had a successful ACSAC in Hawaii this year (with attendance roughly equal to last year, which given the current environment says something); the next two years will be here in Los Angeles (making logistics easier). I’ve been keeping very busy with the highway pages and the podcast. I attended the mandatory holiday movies, and even squeezed in some theatre and concerts. Lastly, but not leastly, politics-wise, 2025 was very stress inducing; hopefully, 2026 will bring some hope for the future (especially in November). But we have to make it through the campaign season first, and I predict that will be a messy spring, summer, and fall. The other messy question for 2026 is: Do I upgrade my Windows 10 machine (purchased at the end of 2018) to Windows 11, or just buy a new Windows 11 machine? Each option has its own fears, stresses, and headaches.

I’m continuing to work on podcast episodes. I’ve completed the first episode on Route 12, and will complete the remaining two on Route 12, one on Route 13, and one on Route 14 after the last round of updates for 2025 are posted. For those, all that remains is incorporation of this headline post, and then it is time to generate and post. Episode 4.05 is also recorded and pending editing, so that should go up around the end of next week.

Season 4 of the podcast continues, and we’re now using new recording software  (Zencaster). I think it sounds better, but I would love to hear from the listeners. Let us know what you think. It looks like the regular audience is between 60-70 folks, and I’d love to get that number up (as of today, we’re at 37 for 4.04, 61 for 4.03, 69 for 4.02, 93 for 4.01, and 72 for 3.15), although the numbers don’t included those who listen directly from the CARouteByRoute website (as I don’t know how to get those stats). You can help. Please tell your friends about the podcast, “like”, “♥”, or “favorite” it, and give it a rating in your favorite podcatcher. Share the podcast on Facebook groups, and in your Bluesky and Mastodon communities. For those that hear the early episodes, the sound quality of the episodes does get better — we were learning. If you know sound editing, feel free to give me advice (I use Audacity to edit). As always, you can keep up with the show at the podcast’s forever home at https://www.caroutebyroute.org , the show’s page on Spotify for Creators, or you can subscribe through your favorite podcatching app or via the RSS feeds (CARxR, Spotify for Creators) . The following episode has been posted this month:

• December | CA RxR 4.04: Route 9: Pre-1964 – Milpitas to Castro Valley. Episode 4.04 is our second episode exploring Route 9, which in its post-1964 version runs from Santa Cruz to Saratoga and Los Gatos. Before 1964, Route 9 continued N up to the Mountain View area, and then across to Milpitas, and up to the Castro Valley. The previous episode covered post-1964 Route 9 (and the first segment of pre-1964 Sign Route 9) from Santa Cruz to Saratoga and then into Los Gatos, as well as all the 9^th State Route and LRN 9. This episode (4.04) covers the pre-1964 Route 9 portions N of Saratoga: Sign Route 9 through Mountain View, Milpitas, and up through Hayward and the Castro Valley. This portion of Sign Route 9 became Route 85, Route 237, Route 17/I-880/I-680 (in portions) and Route 238. The next pair of episodes will be covering I-10, with episode 4.05 covering the Santa Monica Freeway portion, and episode 4.06 covering the San Bernardino Freeway portion. (Spotify for Creators)

As a reminder: One of the sources for the highway page updates (and the raison d’etre for for this post) are headlines about California Highways that I’ve seen over the last month. I collect them in this post, which serves as fodder for the updates to my California Highways site, and so there are also other pages and things I’ve seen that I wanted to remember for the site updates. Lastly, the post also includes some things that I think would be of peripheral interest to my highway-obsessed highway-interested readers.

Well, you should now be up to date. Here are the headlines that I found about California’s highways for December.

Key

[Ħ Historical information | ＄ Paywalls, ＄＄ really obnoxious paywalls, and ∅ other annoying restrictions. I’m no longer going to list the paper names, as I’m including them in the headlines now. Note: For ＄ paywalls, sometimes the only way is incognito mode, grabbing the text before the paywall shows, and pasting into an editor. See this article for more tips on bypassing paywalls. ＄＄ paywalls require the use of archive.ph. ☊ indicates an primarily audio article. 🎥 indicates a primarily video article. ]

Highway Headlines

• ＄ New ramp meters along Highway 101 in Sonoma and Marin counties to be activated Tuesday (Petaluma Argus-Courier). New Highway 101 ramp meters in Sonoma and Marin counties will be activated starting Tuesday to help manage traffic flow, according to Caltrans. Caltrans will turn on seven meters, which are traffic signals at onramps, in Sonoma County and five in Marin County in both northbound and southbound directions, the agency said in a Wednesday news release. All of the Sonoma County meters and both Marin County northbound meters will be switched on Tuesday. Three southbound Marin County meters, which are located along the Marin-Sonoma Narrows project area, will be turned on after some additional drainage and electrical work is completed, likely in early 2026, Caltrans spokesperson Matt O’Donnell said in an email Wednesday. The meters — located in Petaluma, Novato, Sausalito and Mill Valley — will be active at varying hours Monday through Friday. Signs will be placed ahead of the meters, letting drivers know of the new traffic signals.
• Work begins on Richmond-San Rafael Bridge ‘open-road tolling’ project (Richmond Standard). The Richmond–San Rafael Bridge is entering a new era of tolling. The Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) announced that pre-construction work for a full conversion to “open-road tolling” (ORT) begins this week, weather permitting. When construction is fully underway, drivers can expect overnight westbound lane closures, with full overnight closures expected for the gantry installation (dates to be determined). This marks the first ORT conversion among the seven BATA-managed bridges. When the structure is built, vehicles will no longer need to slow for toll booths. Instead, overhead equipment will automatically detect FasTrak tags or license-plate accounts as drivers pass under at freeway speeds.
• The Bay Bridge, Nearing Age 90, Gets a Physical (KQED). For most of the past year, Caltrans contractors have conducted a far-from-routine physical on an 89-year-old patient: the monumental western span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. In a process completed in September, engineers opened up the massive main cables that support the bridge’s double-deck roadway between Yerba Buena Island and San Francisco’s Rincon Hill to check on conditions inside. The results from that exam are due by early next year. The last time crews looked inside the cables was in 2003, during a major seismic upgrade project. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission said this year’s checkup was the first systematic investigation of the 25-inch diameter cables since the Bay Bridge was completed in 1936.
• ＄ ‘The Snake’ stretch of Mulholland Hwy. reopens after 6 years (Los Angeles Times). For more than six years, adrenaline junkies have yearned for the moment that, once again, they can careen around the serpentine corners of a stretch of Mulholland Highway with the crisp mountain air rushing through their hair. Their wait came to an end Tuesday as a 2.4-mile section of the road known as “the Snake” slithered back to life. The area of the highway roughly between Kanan Road and Sierra Creek Road has been closed to vehicle traffic since early 2019 after it was charred in the Woolsey fire and further damaged by winter rains.
• Mulholland Highway’s Iconic 2.4-Mile Winding Stretch ‘The Snake’ Has Officially Reopened — After Almost Seven Years (Secret Los Angeles). Mulholland Highway is one of Los Angeles’ most iconic roads, famous for its winding curves and breathtaking views that make it a must for any scenic drive. Its serpentine path has become a symbol of the city’s adventurous spirit and laid-back lifestyle. So ingrained is it in L.A.’s identity that it even inspired the title of David Lynch’s cult classic film. For decades, locals and visitors alike have flocked to this legendary route to experience a drive that feels uniquely Californian. Everything changed in 2018 when the devastating Woolsey Fire swept through the area, followed by heavy rains and landslides that forced the closure of the iconic section. For nearly seven years, drivers had to bypass “The Snake,” leaving a gap in one of L.A.’s most celebrated scenic routes. Now, according to the L.A. Times, the narrow 2.4-mile stretch has officially reopened, restoring a beloved piece of the city’s landscape.
• New report paints damning picture of California’s aging infrastructure (SF Gate). In 1989, as the Loma Prieta earthquake shook the ground up to 60 miles from its center, a section of the Bay Bridge collapsed. The bridge failure was a visible representation of California’s vulnerable infrastructure; a 53-year-old span that hadn’t been retrofitted adequately to withstand a disaster. A recently released report shows just how much of California’s infrastructure is in dire need of repair or replacement. The report, which assigns a grade to 17 different categories of infrastructure and is compiled by the American Society of Civil Engineers, gave the state’s cumulative infrastructure a C-, unchanged since 2019, but below the nation’s C grade. Since 2019, grades for aviation, energy, hazardous waste, levees, ports and rail all improved, while the state’s dams, drinking water, schools and stormwater declined. The study is completed about every six years.
• ＄ Plans to raise Vincent Thomas Bridge rejected by state (Los Angeles Times). Construction on the Vincent Thomas Bridge near the Port of Los Angeles is slated to begin next month, but the project will not include a 26-foot bridge hoist that port officials were hoping for. Port Executive Director Gene Seroka proposed raising the bridge earlier this year amid existing plans from the California Department of Transportation to re-deck the emerald green overpass connecting San Pedro to Terminal Island and Long Beach. Raising the bridge would allow larger, more efficient ships to travel underneath carrying cargo. About 40% of the port’s cargo capacity is beyond the bridge, which sits at 185 feet high.