Representatives from Caltrans attended an informal meeting of the Morongo Basin Municipal Advisory Council last night to discuss three separate efforts to make Highway 62 safer; two in Joshua Tree and one in Morongo Valley. Reporter David Haldane was there and filed this report…
If you ride a bike, don’t appreciate fast cars or like to hang out in downtown Joshua Tree, there was some good news at last night’s informal gathering of the Morongo Basin Municipal Advisory Council.
A Caltrans plan to slow traffic through the business district by narrowing Highway 62 got a green light. That fete will be accomplished, a spokesman said, by carving out a dedicated bike lane and restriping parking lanes from parallel to diagonal. Though the approval was unofficial, it was enough to prompt a promise by the state transportation agency to return next month with a more formal plan.
Already formalized, is a $4.7 million project to add left-turn lanes from just west of Torres Avenue to just east of Lee Drive with work slated to begin in April.
Still in the future: a center median project along the highway in Morongo Valley.
