Carbon Canyon Road ban on big rigs OK’d by Chino Hills

Vehicles with four or more axels may be banned from Carbon Canyon Road beginning next year under an ordinance recently approved by the Chino Hills City Council.

The matter now goes to the Brea City Council for consideration.

Carbon Canyon Road, or Highway 142, connects Chino Hills in San Bernardino County to Brea in Orange County. The 8.5-mile two-lane highway, owned and operated by Caltrans, is an alternative to the 57, 60 and 91 freeways. With its steep grades and sharp turns, the highway poses safety concerns for larger trucks, according to a study commissioned by Chino Hills in 2021.

Already there are signs along the highway advising larger trucks to avoid the route through Carbon Canyon. With the ordinance unanimously passed by the Chino Hills City Council on Dec. 12, trucks with four or more axels would be completely barred from the road.

The ordinance is expected to take effect in either late February or early March 2024, according to Chino Hills public works director Daniel Bobadilla.

At a Dec. 12 meeting, Bobadilla said the timing depends on several things, including approval from Caltrans, when Brea City Council adopts the ordinance, and when signs can be fabricated and put up along the highway. The Brea council is expected to discuss the ordinance in January, then both cities will submit their plans to Caltrans for approval.

In 2016, the cities, along with Caltrans, began exploring ways to address safety issues and increased traffic and delays on Carbon Canyon Road.

As part of this effort, a study commissioned by Chino Hills and released in 2022 found that the conditions of Carbon Canyon — particularly the sharp turns, steep grades and narrow roads — created unsafe conditions for larger trucks in particular. The study found that to make the sharp turns, larger trucks often must cross through the center of the road or encroach on the shoulder of the road and into the dirt.

The study identified three incidents where the conditions, paired with the presence of trucks, prompted traffic or safety issues for other drivers.

• April 12, 2021: A semi‐truck traveling uphill collided with a passenger vehicle traveling downhill when the truck encroached on the other lane.
• July 21, 2021: A disabled semi‐truck blocked both lanes of traffic for 45 minutes around 2 p.m. in the afternoon, because there was no place for the driver to pull off.
• Aug. 12, 2021: A Chino Hills resident reported that a semi‐truck traveling downhill encroached into the opposing travel lane, causing them to drive on the shoulder to avoid an accident and caused other drivers to stop.

Chino Hills resident Stephen Tsai, a doctor and founder of East West Medical Group in Fullerton, said at a Dec. 12 public hearing that as he was driving home along Carbon Canyon on Nov. 29, he came around a sharp turn and collided with an Amazon truck.

The truck had slowed down to make the turn, Tsai said, and he had no time to react. The accident left Tsai with a fractured arm, bruises to his chest and an injury to his lower right leg.

“Allow Carbon Canyon to be a safe road for the Chino Hills residents,” Tsai said.

The Chino Hills council originally approved truck restrictions for Carbon Canyon Road in December 2022. Caltrans altered the language of the original ordinance to include trucks with four or more axels, as well as any combination of vehicles that add up to four or more axels, such as a truck pulling a trailer, requiring the council to bring the ordinance back for a vote this month.