Construction on I-5 in Sacramento County from the Beach Lake Bridge at Morrison Creek to the American River Bridge will bring much relief to the 120,000 drivers that use this stretch of the interstate daily.
"This part of the roadway was built in the early 1970's. Some of the slabs are aging and deteriorating with weather conditions. We have been doing emergency work for so many years in the area; that was one of the reasons it was trigged to have a major rehab done," N. Sutha Suthahar, Project Manager explained.
The estimated $267.4 million construction project will start October 2018 and finish December 2022. Dennis Keaton, Caltrans District 3 Public Information Officer, says that drivers won't really start to see traffic delays until Spring 2019. "Most of the work will be in the middle of the night and weekend closures from Friday night to Sunday nights starting in the spring. This project will have similar traffic delays as the ‘80 Across the Top’ project did," explained Keaton.
The proposed work includes:
- Mainline and all ramps/connectors will be rehabilitated with 40-year service life pavements.
- Casilada Way Pedestrian Over-Crossing (POC) will be replaced.
- Pedestrian ramps and sidewalks throughout the corridor will be brought to current ADA standards.
- Eight new maintenance vehicle pullouts and twenty-four gore paving at six ramps will be added to reduce maintenance worker exposure to live traffic, thus improving worker safety.
- All barriers will be upgraded to the new Federal standards (the “Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH)”) to improve worker safety.
- Both mainline and ramps will be widened to add the proposed auxiliary/transition lanes between Pocket Road and Florin Road.
- ITS Elements (in conjunction with Fiber Optic Project 4F450 – CMS, Vehicle Classification, etc.) will be installed.
- Ancillary facilities to be replaced or upgraded include drainage systems, overhead signs, lighting, pumping plants, approach slabs, guardrails, and safety barriers.
"It's something that is needed. We have done our best; our department has done its job by doing all the maintenance repairs, our crews have been fixing potholes and cracks but after a shelf life of more than 40 years, something has to be done for a long-term fix compared to patching stuff up. Senate Bill 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017, will help pay for the most-needed repairs”.