Chances are that they’ve finally cleared that ghastly, traffic-snarling accident in Willits by now, in which a propane truck went head on with another vehicle, overturning and dumping its contents all over the roadway and necessitating a response from a Hazmat team on one of the busiest traveling days of the year. Reports from the scene indicate that traffic through the city, never ideal, was backed up for over an hour on either end, and appears to have engendered a number of spinoff accidents.
The debate over whether to reroute Highway 101 to bypass downtown Willits has literally been going on for over 50 years. Caltrans just about had its ducks in a row this time 2009, but then got aced by the Army Corps of Engineers for inadequate wetlands remediation. (The highway-builders hold out hope.)
One thing that the accident has revealed is how few Humboldters — at least those on the Twitters — know how to bypass Willits by their own damn selves. It’s not that hard, and it’s kinda pretty too. Take a look at the map below in case something like this ever comes up again, and please click through for turn-by-turn directions. One false move, here, and you’ll be out in deep, deep boondocks before you know it.
This, of course, kills your traditional Burrito Exquisito/Al’s Redwood Room/Chad’s Fish and Chips/Purple Thistle/Mariposa Market/Paradise Cafe/Book Juggler stop, but as compensation you’ll pass within a few hundred yards of the ancestral Sims manse.
This article appears in Holiday Gift Guide 2010.
Pretty much tells you why Willits needs that bypass. I should have been done in 1958 when the freeway opened a few miles south of town.
Thanks for the detour tip, Hank, as only a native Willitsan would know.
Screw Willits…how about a Eureka bypass?
Drat! We got stuck in traffic well north of Willits around 4:30pm, and ended up following quite a number of cars that turned off onto Reynolds Hwy. Since we didn’t know where we were going, and didn’t have cell service, but had to keep moving to keep the 2.5 year-old happy, we followed the other cars blindly as they stayed on Hearst-Willits Rd. and back into the middle of town. We sat in that street traffic and finally got past the accident at the south end of town about 5:30. Upside: We had a nice dinner at Thai House in Ukiah.
We hit the north end of Willits (out by those train tracks) on Wednesday at 12:10 PM. It took us two and a half hours to get through town… much longer than the 1 hour estimated in the blog. Sure wish we had known about this route around town.
Stop the DIY Bypass!
! hour! Nope…I was stuck for 2 hours and then relatives from Humboldt were behind and stuck for 4 hours…
I wonder why the Willits police and/or Caltrans didn’t mark the alternative route and flag people onto it to prevent two hours per car gasoline emissions while people waited for the wreck to be cleared.
It’s not very difficult to make plans to assist motorists stuck because of road closures, it only takes a plan, some cones or sawhorses and a couple of public safety workers to thoughtfully guide people around hazardous situations.
I’m surprised that no public agency provided alternative routing information, especially when a good alternative route exists.