The Monterey County Transportation Authority provides updates on the US 101 South of Salinas – The King City Rustler project

SALINAS – The Transportation Agency for Monterey County (TAMC) Board of Directors received a comprehensive update on the U.S. 101 South of Salinas project during its recent meeting.

The project, still in the planning stages, aims to address serious safety concerns along the corridor between the southern city limits of Salinas and Chualar. The update also highlighted key feedback from the project's ongoing community engagement efforts.

TAMC officials said the section of Highway 101 in question is experiencing higher-than-average collision rates, particularly at uncontrolled intersections. Statistics show that there is one death every year and at least one serious accident every month in this corridor.

“This corridor experiences collision rates higher than the state average, with concentrations at uncontrolled intersections,” officials said.

Additionally, the presence of uncontrolled railroad crossings that serve as the only access points to several nearby properties has emerged as another significant safety risk. Many of these properties are located on some of the most valuable agricultural land in the world.

The project will also address aging infrastructure, including much-needed upgrades to the Abbot Street and Main Street interchanges. The environmental review process is expected to explore alternatives for rebuilding both interchanges and possibly constructing right-of-way roads to maintain property access from Highway 101.

Community engagement was an important part of the planning process, with input from various local stakeholders including the Traffic Safety Alliance, Monterey County Farm Bureau, Chualar and East Salinas communities, property and business owners, and the Ag Land Trust.

This feedback was critical in developing “preliminary alternatives for the (project) environmental process,” TAMC officials said.

Key stakeholder concerns include the need for long-term planning to prevent reactionary solutions following major incidents, the importance of minimizing impacts to agricultural lands, and the need to provide alternative access to Highway 101 during construction. The Chualar community also expressed concerns about the negative impact of truck traffic on their quality of life, while others called for solutions to traffic congestion at the Airport Boulevard interchange.

The next phase of community engagement is scheduled for this fall as the project team works to identify viable alternatives to be evaluated in the environmental review process, which is scheduled to begin early next year.

“Identifying viable alternatives that meet the project purpose and needs is an important part of the environmental assessment,” officials said.

The project schedule includes the following key milestones:

• Identification of viable options by the end of 2024;
• Environmental work to begin in early 2025;
• Completion of environmental work by the end of 2026; And
• Completion of the project design by the end of 2027.

For more information about the US 101 South of Salinas project, visit tamcmonterey.org/us-101-south-of-salinas-safety-improvement-project.