_____________________________ ST. NORBERT CHURCH           RATES ________________________

Socialize

New Concerns Force Cerritos Council to Discuss Altered Truck Routes in City

Delivery trucks line up at Walmart in Cerritos.

BY BRIAN HEWS

The Cerritos City Council will hold a special meeting this Monday at City Hall to discuss the emergency ordinance that was passed altering a major truck route within the city.

Last year, several residents began complaining about the truck noise on Bloomfield caused by trucks exiting the 91 freeway traveling north to Alondra.

The city commissioned a study and found the truck traffic had increased and that the trucks were speeding causing noise levels that were unacceptable in residential areas.

The city subsequently passed an emergency ordinance declassifying the Bloomfield truck route and classifying a truck route on Shoemaker from 166 north to Alondra.

But now there is a problem with the Shoemaker route.

California Vehicle Code allows trucks to use non-truck routes to make deliveries, consequently concerns were raised about truck traffic on Shoemaker, including a letter that was sent to the City by ABC Superintendent Dr. Mary Sieu.

Given the CVC, trucks coming from the south, exiting from the 91 freeway, would be allowed to turn north on Shoemaker, taking them past  Whitney High and Wittman Elementary.

Dr. Sieu and other teachers and staff were very concerned about the new traffic and expressed those concerns in the letter.

And they were justified.

In April of 2019, a 14-year-old girl died and her 12-year-old sister was gravely injured after they were struck by a big rig while walking to school in the Exposition Park area of Los Angeles.

Cerritos staff spoke with traffic and court officials, including a traffic commissioner, for advice on the changing of the truck route; they indicated it could be problematic to change the Bloomfield truck route.

They also indicated that the Shoemaker route could ease truck traffic in the City, but traffic study should be done similar to what was performed on Bloomfield.

The city Council was given three choices in the staff report:

  1. Take no further action and leave the emergency ordinance intact
  2. Wait for further information from the courts and commissioners and advise the City Council accordingly
  3. Declassify the new truck route on Shoemaker. 

The last choice would presumably open the Bloomfield route up again.