After Old Morro Road in Atascadero sustained damage during the storms in January of 2023, it was never repaired, raising safety concerns among several nearby residents.
Atascadero resident Terry Carroll contacted the city about the sunken-in portion of the road just past the 13000 block.
"It should be a priority," Carroll said, "There’s a lot of cracks, and it’s been that way for years and it keeps seeping in from the storms. And if you don’t maintain a road, this can happen."
She said the sunken-in section is hard to see at night, making it dangerous for neighbors and a liability for travelers who take the road as a detour.
"We are aware that it’s there, so we keep slow. But because it’s used as a detour road for accidents on Highway 41, out-of-towners are not aware," Carroll said.
Ryan Hayes, the City of Atascadero's Deputy Director of Public Works, said this is one of many slides that occurred during the storms. Since the slide was unforseen, funds were not allotted.
“With most things that happened during emergencies, we don’t have funding planned for those things. So we had no funding planned for Old Morro Road," Hayes said.
According to Hayes, Old Morro Road is technically still usable in its current state, with its current Pavement Condition Index being 37 out of 100.
"It's considered poor condition, but not a failed roadway," Hayes said.
The Public Works official explained that addressing the road is a matter of finding the funding before crews can start repairing.
"We are going into our next budget cycle right now. That budget gets adopted this summer. So we're looking at the potential for including some funding for Old Morro Road as part of that budget cycle," Hayes said.
He said repairs could begin as soon as this summer.
In the meantime, Hayes reports that the city could look into some temporary adjustments along Old Morro Road.
"Something we can look into is potentially adding some lights there, maybe a stop ahead sign to give people a little bit more notice that aren't familiar with the road," Hayes said.
To check if a street is classified as a city-maintained road, residents can access the City of Atascadero's tool here.
