Bill Hocker | Nov 20, 2014 on: Traffic Issues

The following links are related to the proposed Cal-Trans changes to Hwy 29 from American Canyon to Soscol. They are related to Napa Pipe in that they are both part of the development of the Napa-Vallejo metropolitan area. The highway proposal is intended to ease (but will in fact encourage more) traffic into the valley.

What is not covered in the propsal is the Soscol corridor into town. A mile further north on Soscol from the Hwy 29 flyover is the intersection with Kiser Rd which will serve almost all traffic to Napa Pipe, 1000 housing units, a Costco, 200,000 sf of retail commercial industrial office space, a hotel and senior center. This intersection, currently almost empty of cross traffic will become as congested as the American Canyon/29 interchange is now.

And will the flyover really be able to ease things enough once thousands of vehicles from Napa Pipe and the Watson Ranch, and the future industrial parks at the airport and American Canyon are added? Will it just be a temporary speed up going toward the next intersection bottleneck?

As long as the county and the municipalities of Napa aspire to the development levels of Sonoma or Contra Costa counties, Cal-trans will never be able to keep up with the traffic.

Documents
Napa County Transportation & Planning Agency SR 29 Project Documents
NCTPA project Proposed Program

Articles
American Canyon discusses face-lift for Highway 29 corridor
Plan proposes $349 million in Highway 29 improvements
No six lanes on Highway 29
Caltrans continues planning Soscol Junction project