The city of Paso Robles is making changes to the intersection at Airport Road and Highway 46 East.
According to a traffic study, semi-trucks turning left from Airport Road onto Highway 46 pose a significant safety issue.
Beginning May 7 at 5 a.m., the left-turn lane at the intersection will close permanently.
In 2022, the city hired Central Coast Transportation Consulting to conduct a traffic study for several projects involving local wineries. The study revealed that the intersection of Highway 46 and Airport Road has a significantly higher collision rate than the statewide average for similar areas.
“There has been times that there’s been, due to construction, heavy traffic and we get caught up in a little gridlock, but I’ve never really witnessed anything bad happening there,” said Danny Rios who was traveling through the area on Monday.
But local Kenny Carlson, who has lived in northern San Luis Obispo County for 44 years, says he's witnessed multiple traffic incidents on Highway 46 over the years.
“They’ve just gotten worse over the last five to 10 years,” Carlson said. “People don’t really pay attention that much [to] signage, speed limit.”
By closing the left turn lane, the city hopes to eliminate both the "possibility of broadside accidents at Airport Road" and "collisions between vehicles turning left out of Airport Road towards Fresno and vehicles turning left onto Airport from Highway 46".
Carlson adds that he’s optimistic it will help prevent near-misses.
“I think that’ll help improve the close calls we have out here,” Carlson said.
Caltrans advises those who typically turn left onto Airport Road to plan alternate routes. Some alternate routes include:
- Jardine Road intersection for left turns onto Highway 46 East
- U-turn at Golden Hill Road signal
- Union Road to Golden Hill Road to the right turn at Highway 46 East
