Council moves to reinstate old truck route after outreach, vows better signage and enforcement

The Soledad City Council voted May 15 to return the city’s truck route to the prior alignment after an engineering review and community outreach indicated the older route performed better on multiple safety and operational criteria.

City Engineer Leon Gomez told council the city evaluated the current and old truck routes across six criteria, and the old route "was much better" in the assessment. Staff held stakeholder meetings (including an April 10 community meeting) with truck drivers and business owners; staff said feedback favored returning to the previous alignment.

Council members raised concerns about truck turning movements — particularly at a roundabout that is technically traversable by large vehicles but "very tight," as staff described it — and asked whether signage, enforcement and outreach (including updating truck‑route data in navigation/trucker apps) would be used to prevent wrong turns and parking problems on side streets such as Orchard Lane.

Don Wilcox, public works director, said part of returning to the old route will include a signage evaluation to meet MUTCD and California guidelines and placement at critical decision points. Staff also flagged possible minor improvements to approaches at the roundabout to reduce the risk of curb damage. Council members asked staff to use the city’s database of local trucking companies and to pursue outreach to out‑of‑area drivers and apps as part of implementation.

The council opened the public hearing with no in‑person or Zoom testimony and approved an action to introduce and waive reading of Ordinance No. 769 establishing the truck route per staff recommendation.