Lincoln bypass gets green light

Construction on the long-anticipated Lincoln bypass could begin as early as this summer – a year ahead of schedule.

The project's green light came last week with an early decision by the California Transportation Commission to approve $200 million in funding.

The $324 million project to reroute commuters and big-rig truck traffic around central Lincoln will go out to bid soon. Officials expect to award a contract by June, with construction beginning shortly after.

"I'm ecstatic," Lincoln City Councilman Tom Cosgrove said. "I've always been confident we'd be able to do the project sooner. …

"I'm ever the optimist. The construction schedule is about three years. Given the resources that are available in this economy with not a lot of big construction projects going on, we may be able to do it in about 2 1/2 years."

The commission, meeting in Burlingame, unanimously approved the construction funding during a two-day session ending Feb. 14.

The nearly 12-mile Highway 65 bypass will skirt west around Lincoln from Industrial Avenue before linking back to the highway in Sheridan.

Placer County Transportation Planning Agency Executive Director Celia McAdam called the bypass one of the most critical transportation projects in the region.

"It was a solid 10 years of arm-twisting, nail-biting, persuasion and hard work," McAdam said.

Although state transportation officials originally said they wouldn't advance money for the bypass, McAdam said the various agencies found a way to make it work.

"We found a way to sort of loan other money for right now and pay it back next year. The bottom line is, the state is very committed to get stuff moving right now, and we're very committed to get stuff moving now," she said. "Sometimes, you've got to get creative."

The Placer County Transportation Planning Agency and the California Department of Transportation have spent about $124 million in local, state and federal funds to purchase right-of-ways for the project, design the roadway and conduct the environmental impact analysis.

McAdam said the Lincoln bypass and another project to add diamond lanes on Interstate 80 in Roseville have exhausted the county's share of state and federal transportation money for the next 15 years.

"We've really had to put our backs to the wall to make this work," she said. "Everything right down to look for change under seat cushion, and it has worked. We could've stood by and saved up money until the early 2020s and then gone to construction, but who knows what the cost would've been at that point.

"Instead, the public will have the benefit on driving this road, and we'll have done it at a much lower cost."

But without a local source of transportation funding, it may be decades before the fast-growing county sees any other major road improvements, she said.

In November, Placer officials backed off plans to put a half-cent transportation sales tax measure on the 2008 ballot after polls showed there wasn't enough voter support.

Cosgrove called the Lincoln bypass a "tremendous economic asset to the region."

"This project will give somebody work for three years and, in this economy, that's a good thing to have," he said, adding that the large-scale construction project also spreads benefits to other segments of the local economy.

About the writer:

• Call The Bee's Jennifer K. Morita, (916) 773-7388.