Expect delays: The biggest freeway reconstruction in Sacramento history is about to begin

Caltrans this week ramps up the most ambitious highway reconstruction in Sacramento history, a four-year effort to modernize and widen Highway 50 from Watt Avenue to the Interstate 5 interchange in downtown Sacramento.

The $460 million project not only is the most expensive in the region’s history, it is also one of the most unusual.

The state will construct a third freeway bridge between the two existing elevated sections of the freeway through downtown, between W and X streets.

The new bridge will be attached to the two existing eastbound and westbound spans, essentially turning the W-X into a nearly block-wide superstructure, allowing space for new carpool or High-Occupancy Vehicle lanes in each direction.

To do that, Caltrans will have to slice off the interior concrete section of each of the two existing bridges – basically the center median area – to affix the new bridge.

FREEWAY EXPANSION

Map: NATHANIEL LEVINE | Source: Caltrans

That means, starting this week, pushing the traffic lanes to the right in each direction, onto the right shoulders. And, at several junctures over the next year, it means closing some lanes to make room.

Caltrans will do most lane closures at night and have the lanes reopened before the 5 a.m. commute, but some lane closures likely will take place during days as well, mostly on weekends.

The project will involve closing some streets at times under the freeway.

A few months ago, Caltrans set up mechanisms to shoo a thousand or more bats and some owls who were living inside the structure. In the next few weeks, several hundred homeless people living in tent encampments under the freeway overpasses will be required to move. The city and Caltrans have come up with some alternative sites for them.

Also, the Sunday Farmer’s Market has been moved temporarily to the Arden Fair mall parking lot as well. It likely will be able to return to its spot under the freeway at Sixth street in about a year, when work on that section of the project is finished.

“This is big,” Caltrans spokeswoman Angela DaPrato said, with various improvements planned for “a lot of people: truckers, commuters, students at Sac State, RT light rail riders, Elmhurst residents.”

Elmhurst will get a new soundwall, and light rail will get funding for extra service to the city of Folsom.

COVID-19 and commuters

The project has been planned for years. But it is being launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many downtown workers are teleworking from home rather than commuting. That should be a benefit, reducing the number of drivers who are affected by the work.

But, despite that, Highway 50 traffic remains heavy and continues to be clogged, notably in the East Sacramento and Elmhurst areas on workdays. That includes congestion on the W-X freeway where lanes merge near Interstate 5.

Caltrans officials project that traffic will pick up as the months pass into 2022 and more people begin returning to downtown offices.

The main goal for the project is to extend the existing Highway 50 carpool or HOV lanes from Watt Avenue into downtown where they will end just before Highway 50 hits Interstate 5.

That will create the longest tandem of carpool lanes in the region, running from El Dorado Hills into downtown.

The carpool or HOV project will one of two ongoing this year in the region. Caltrans also is adding carpool lanes on Interstate 5 through south Sacramento to the southern edge of downtown.

State highway officials also are doing initial planning work now to extend those carpool lanes on I-5 through downtown, over the American River and through Natomas to Sacramento International Airport.

In time, the Interstate 5 lanes through Natomas could be converted into toll lanes, allowing some people to pay for a faster ride into the city, Caltrans officials said.

Lowering the freeway

The Highway 50 project includes another unusual element:

Caltrans plans to lower the freeway about one foot for a mile through the East Sacramento area in order to create more room for taller freight trucks to pass under crossings, such as the 48th, 51st and 59th street bridges.

Another section of the freeway also will be lowered between Watt and Howe avenues, where it is bridged by the Occidental Drive overpass.

The most obtrusive part of the project for commuters, however, will come when Caltrans rebuilds about seven miles of the freeway surface in both directions between Watt Avenue and the Highway 99 interchange.

When first proposed more than a decade ago, the project drew opposition from the city of Sacramento, environmentalists and from residents in some nearby neighborhoods, who argued that HOV lanes will bring more cars into downtown.

A series of negotiated agreements over the years have reduced that opposition. That includes an agreement by Caltrans to help Sacramento Regional Transit fund new tracks from Sunrise Boulevard to the downtown Folsom area that will allow the transit agency to run trains from Folsom to downtown on 15-minute schedules rather than the current 30-minute timing.

Also, Caltrans will start the project by building an eight to 10-foot-tall soundwall on the south side of Highway 50 between 65th Street and the interchange with Highway 99. That wall will reduce traffic noise in the Elmhurst neighborhood of Sacramento.

Caltrans officials say the moment is good to work on the project, because freeway traffic has been lighter since COVID-19 hit, which prompted many downtown state departments to shut their offices. Caltrans officials say that they expect freeway traffic to ramp up again in the months and years post-COVID.

The Highway 50 corridor continues to be one of the biggest housing and business growth corridors in the region as well. Tens of thousands of new residents are expected to move to that corridor in Folsom, Rancho Cordova and unincorporated areas of the southeast county in the coming decade or two.

This story was originally published March 23, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Expect delays: The biggest freeway reconstruction in Sacramento history is about to begin."