By Ashley Mackin | SDUN Editor

The cement barrier that previously deferred cars from the SR-163 off-ramp onto Robinson Avenue in Hillcrest, called a K-rail, has been removed to help alleviate the bottleneck common to the intersection of Robinson and Tenth avenues in Hillcrest.

Luke Terpstra, Chair of the Hillcrest Town Council (HTC), said the previous situation “brought all the lanes down to one [lane] with one stop.”

Through the efforts of the HTC and representatives from District 3 Councilmember Todd Gloria’s and Assemblymember Toni Atkins’s offices, the rail was removed and a new lane is now in place to minimize future traffic congestion leading onto Robinson Avenue.

Terpstra said, “The [Hillcrest] Town Council polled the community to see what we thought would be the best solution and what the City was willing to do. For now that’s what this seems to be. We’ve tried to get our elected officials to push it forward, and they have.”

It was unclear whether the City or State held ultimate responsibility, given work was done to a freeway off-ramp, which is State-maintained, but work was also done to a City street.

HTC board member Tim Gahagan said, “The State got involved partly because there had to be permits in order to shut down the off-ramp for the couple of hours needed to remove the cement rail.”

It was City funds that paid for the removal of the K-Rail and the repainting of the lane.

Terpstra said, “What [the City is] doing is returning the intersection to the way it was, pre-[1996] when it was two lanes and the lanes were problematic…. They brought it all down to one lane with this cement K-rail and they just left it that way.”

He added, “It was supposed to be a temporary solution and then 15 years later we said, ‘Well, how long is temporary?’ and then we just lobbied and said, ‘Listen, if you’re not going to do anything, at least put it back the way it was,’ because we felt that was a better situation.”

Terpstra said that two years ago, the HTC founded the 163 Ramp Committee and, as a Committee, informed neighbors of their plans. “We started talking to people and letting neighbors know what we wanted to do,” he said. “It’s taken two years to finally get here and it wasn’t easy.”

Ann Garwood, co-founder of Hillquest.com, was pleased about the removal of the K-Rail. “It just goes to show what a community dedicated to making itself better can do,” she said. “I mean it’s not easy and it takes a long time but if its something you want, you can make a difference and the Hillcrest Town Council has done that.”

She further encouraged people who want to make other suggestions for the neighborhood to come to the HTC meetings and “share their voice on how to make this community better,” she said. The Council next meets on March 13 at the Joyce Beers Center, located at 1230 Cleveland Ave., from 6:30 – 8 p.m.