Police Begin Enforcing Truck Ban on Cesar Chavez Parkwayy

Friday, 21 September 2007

San Diego Police officers have begun enforcing a ban on truckers using Cesar Chavez Parkway to access Interstate 5. Signs prohibiting trucks on the busy thoroughfare were posted a month ago, and a grace period has been in force since the beginning of August.

The Port of San Diego has been handing out flyers to all truckers with a map showing the new truck route along Harbor Drive, with access to I-5 from 28th Street.

Because of truck traffic from the Port’s Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal in Barrio Logan, residents and members of the Marine Terminal Community Committee devised an alternate route to the freeway. The committee includes residents, businesses, not-for-profit groups, government agencies and the Port of San Diego. Staff from the City of San Diego and Caltrans were responsible for making the improvements.

To accommodate the alternate truck route, 40 signs were posted alerting truckers to the prohibition, and new traffic signals were installed at the intersections of Harbor Drive at Schley Street and National Avenue at the I-5 Northbound off- ramp. Right turn lanes were added for northbound traffic on Cesar Chavez Parkway at Harbor Drive and 28th Street at Boston Avenue. The left-turn lane for eastbound traffic on Main Street at 28th Street was extended and the off-ramp from I-5 northbound to 28th Street was widened.

The Port of San Diego is a public benefit corporation and special government entity. Created in 1963 by an act of the California Legislature, the Port manages San Diego harbor and administers the public lands along San Diego Bay. The Port has operated without tax dollars since 1970 and has been responsible for $1.5 billion in public improvements in its five member cities – Chula Vista, Coronado, Imperial Beach, National City and San Diego. With a $10.6 billion economic impact on the San Diego region, the Port oversees two maritime cargo terminals, a cruise ship terminal, 16 public parks, various wildlife reserves and environmental initiatives, a Harbor Police department and the leases of over 600 tenant businesses around San Diego Bay.