Sacramento County fixes roadway, sidewalks on a dangerous part of Watt Avenue
Local officials gathered in North Highlands for a ribbon cutting Tuesday to mark the resurfacing of a three-quarter-mile stretch of Watt Avenue, which previously had some of the worst pavement conditions in the unincorporated areas of Sacramento County.
The five blocks of Watt Avenue between Interstate 80 and Roseville Road have been resurfaced and widened at a cost of more than $20 million.
“One of the biggest complaints we get from constituents is about the condition of our roadways,” Supervisor Rich Desmond, who represents the neighborhood on the Board of Supervisors, said at the ribbon cutting. He said that the new smooth ride on this section would make the nearby bumpy, cracked and potholed areas stand out even more starkly. Sacramento County has widespread poor pavement conditions, and the longer pavement is left to deteriorate, the more expensive it becomes to repair.
“We’ll keep forging on,” Desmond said. “We have a massive maintenance backlog in the county, but with the support from the Board of Supervisors, we’re starting to eat into that backlog and improve the roadways.”
The Sacramento County Department of Transportation widened the six- to eight-lane section of Watt to accommodate unprotected bike lanes while maintaining three wide general-purpose lanes in each direction plus varying turning lanes and a 45 mph speed limit.
The director of the county’s Department of Transportation, Ron Vicari, said that construction cost about $14 million, and that the rest of the more than $20 million price tag largely went toward the right-of-way — the cost to acquire the property adjacent to the road in order to expand its footprint. The Sacramento Area Council of Governments helped fund the project, as did state and federal agencies.
The new unprotected bike lanes are marked by paint and, for about half of the stretch, have a painted buffer between cyclists and traffic. Metal barriers have been placed on the median, which discourage pedestrians from crossing mid-block. A light rail station sits just outside the project area at Watt and I-80.
Sacramento County improved the sidewalks in the project area and added landscaping along sidewalks and to parts of the median. Three signalized intersections were also updated with newer traffic lights. The county referred to the project as a “complete street” project, meaning the roadway is designed to accommodate all users, including drivers, transit riders, cyclists and pedestrians.
History of crashes on Watt
Over five years between Jan. 1, 2020, and Dec. 31, 2024, UC Berkeley’s Transportation Injury Mapping System shows 17 crashes that caused severe injury or death. Of those, 13 involved pedestrians. Drivers fatally struck pedestrians in at least three crashes in that timeframe.
Speed is a major factor in the outcome of a collision, and drivers on Watt between I-80 and Roseville are permitted to travel at lethal speeds. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has found that when a vehicle strikes a pedestrian at 42 mph — less than the 45 mph limit on this part of Watt — the average risk that the pedestrian would die is 50%. The AAA Foundation’s research shows that the chance of a severe injury at 45 mph — which in some cases could later result in death — is all but assured.
Sacramento County’s Department of Transportation has raised safety concerns on Watt Avenue for years, but funding is a perennial challenge, as such projects generally rely on competitive grants. In 2024, the county submitted a grant proposal to the California Transportation Commission’s Active Transportation Program to fund new sidewalks through the Watt Avenue underpass that crosses the train tracks just north of Roseville Road. The grant application, released to The Sacramento Bee in response to a public records request, shows that the intersection of Watt Avenue and Roseville Road was one of the 10 most-dangerous intersections in the county’s jurisdiction.
That project did not receive the grant funding, and although pedestrians can cross directly on the tracks on a path that begins on the west side of Watt, the underpass itself still lacks a sidewalk.
