Sacramento County begins $1.4M replacement of failing Fair Oaks sound wall
Sacramento County Department of Transportation workers began work this week to remove a nearly 40-year-old fall risk along Sunrise Boulevard in Fair Oaks — a sound wall that officials said had become dangerously unstable.
In late April, county engineers who had been monitoring a teetering section of the wall since 2024 discovered it was leaning at a 10-degree angle, county spokesperson Matt Robinson said. A sound wall is a freestanding barrier that blocks traffic noise for nearby residential properties.
The county immediately shut down the far-right southbound lane of Sunrise Boulevard just south of Wildridge Drive and the sidewalk bordering the sound wall due to concerns that the barrier would fall. That traffic lane will remain closed until the wall and sidewalk are rebuilt, which is expected to take until September, Robinson said.
On Monday, construction started to tear down the wall, remove the sidewalk and remove trees. At the end of the project, crews will have built a new 480-foot section of wall, a new section of sidewalk and three streetlights. About 30 trees, which Robinson said were the root of the issue, will be removed.
The county awarded the project to Martin General Engineering in May for just under $1.4 million, Robinson said. The construction is being funded through the county’s Road Fund, which is supported by gas tax revenue and other county funding sources.
Robinson said the wall began to lean in 2024, and the Department of Transportation added the barrier to its list of repair projects at the start of 2025. There are more than 50 initiatives currently on the department’s transportation projects list, according to the county’s website.
“Starting in January, the concern over the lean started to grow because the angle became more prominent,” Robinson said Tuesday.
On April 24, engineers conducted field measurements that showed the sound wall had “structural displacement,” Robinson said. The inspection showed that the lean “had become too dangerous to leave the sidewalk open.”
The lean was likely caused by trees that had been planted near the sound wall when it and the neighboring subdivision were constructed in the 1980s. Over time, the trees’ roots and weight caused the wall to shift and pushed up sections of the sidewalk. The trees were so close to the wall that they also made maintenance difficult, Robinson said.
The new sound wall will be built to current construction standards, including improved sound blocking. Robinson said that will help better shield nearby homes from traffic noise along Sunrise Boulevard, which has expanded and become busier over the past 40 years.
“Some folks,” he said, “will be able to have quieter nights.”
