![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.comstocksmag.com\/sites\/main\/files\/imagecache\/lightbox\/main-images\/_fg59277.png\" "\\"Caltrans")
<\/a><\/p>\n\n Caltrans Public Information Officer Sergio Ochoa S\u00e1nchez says the
\n 5-year, Fix50 project on Highway 50 was one of the most complex
\n construction projects Caltrans has done in 50 years. (Photo by
\n Fred Greaves)\n<\/p>\n
\u201cFix50 is one of the most complex
\n construction projects Caltrans has endeavored in the last 50
\n years,\u201d says Ochoa S\u00e1nchez. \u201cThe project is to repair and rehab
\n the whole area and add traffic intelligence systems, an HOV (high
\n occupancy vehicle) lane, do work on drainage. Also, there are
\n some areas of the highway where the highway went down a little
\n bit to have more space for bigger trucks.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Along parts of the downtown highway maze, protected bicycle lanes
\n are also being added.\n<\/p>\n
\n Over the coming months, with a bit of luck, according to
\n Caltrans, the traffic snarls should be easing as the rehabbed
\n routes will become fully functional. The large construction sites
\n under the downtown overpasses should be cleaned up and the
\n heavy-duty work vehicles withdrawn. In time, the dust, grit and
\n the grime of these hard-hat construction areas will dissipate;
\n left in their wake, officials hope, will be a state-of-the-art
\n highway system.\n<\/p>\n
\n For years now, the Fix50 project has been scorned by the media
\n and has served as a target for angry drivers caught up in its
\n traffic snarls. Ochoa S\u00e1nchez says that he has fielded more than
\n his fair share of unhappy callers. \u201cEveryone\u2019s an engineering and
\n construction expert when it comes to closures,\u201d he says,
\n laughing. Now, though, he can see the metaphorical light at the
\n end of the tunnel, and to his eyes even in the rain, it is a
\n pleasing sight.\n<\/p>\n
Projects around the region<\/p>\n
\n The nearly complete Fix50 project is only one of several large
\n highway investments in the Capital Region that have been worked
\n on in the years since the pandemic.\n<\/p>\n
\n First, there was the I-5 project, opening up additional lanes on
\n the freeway from Elk Grove northward into Sacramento, and shaving
\n up to ten minutes off an average commute. This one was completed
\n some months back, although work on expanding the freeway on the
\n stretch north to Natomas and the airport is ongoing.\n<\/p>\n
\n Meanwhile, lane expansions on I-80 began last summer in the area
\n from Davis to downtown Sacramento \u2014 squeezing in additional toll
\n lanes on the causeway, eating into hard shoulder real estate,
\n without physically expanding the size of the road itself. There\u2019s
\n also a long-overdue $269 million rehabilitation of the American
\n River Bridge from Exposition Boulevard east across the river to
\n 5th Street. Both are slated to be wrapped up by mid-autumn.
\n Caltrans spokespeople hope that if the weather cooperates, most
\n of the project will actually be finished before the end of the
\n summer, leaving only some drainage and electrical work to be
\n completed over the following months.\n<\/p>\n
Smart traffic control<\/p>\n
\n Adding smart sensors under the surface of the expanding freeways
\n allows Caltrans to monitor traffic flow in real time and tweak
\n the on-ramp metering systems to optimize the speed of traffic.
\n The agency feeds that information to drivers through Caltrans\u2019
\n Quick Map app to significantly reduce commute times. By
\n extension, if cars aren\u2019t sitting in traffic for as long, that
\n ought to lower the amount of gas expended by each driver and thus
\n the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from the region.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re talking about the downtown corridor, it\u2019s
\n notorious for delays; it\u2019s always been like that.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\u2014 Dennis Keaton, Caltrans PUBLIC INFORMATION
\n OFFICER<\/p>\n
\n Yet none of this comes cheap. Each of the big projects in the
\n Capital Region, chosen because of the high use of those stretches
\n of highway and the frequency of long traffic delays along their
\n routes, costs\u00a0 hundreds of millions of dollars. That is
\n money which has been made available by a combination of
\n use-it-or-lose-it federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars, as
\n well as state and local funding streams.\n<\/p>\n
\n Caltrans argues that it is money well spent, and once the
\n construction is over \u2014 along with the commuters\u2019 pain that goes
\n with lane closures \u2014 it will ultimately improve the lives of
\n drivers and make the region\u2019s highway infrastructure both safer
\n and greener over the coming decades. Regarding the stretch of
\n I-80 under construction, Public Information Officer Dennis Keaton
\n explains that \u201cIt\u2019s one of the busiest stretches of highway. When
\n you\u2019re talking about the downtown corridor, it\u2019s notorious for
\n delays; it\u2019s always been like that.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Why aren\u2019t we funding alternate modes of transportation?<\/p>\n
\n Not everyone is convinced, however, of the wisdom of these
\n projects. Yes, in the short term it might reduce commute times.
\n But ultimately, as those commute times are reduced, the goal is
\n to allow more vehicles to use the roads without clogging them up.
\n And that, says post-doctoral scholar Amy Lee at UC Davis\u2019
\n Institute for Transportation Studies, is self-defeating. In the
\n long run, it is going to be bad for the state\u2019s goals for
\n reducing greenhouse gas emissions, as well as for air quality
\n mandates codified by the Clean Air Act.\n<\/p>\n
\n Moreover, she argues, once all the additional drivers are drawn
\n into commutes on the newly expanded highways, over the coming
\n years the traffic snarl conditions will once again return \u2014 with
\n the additional lanes simply being taken up by additional
\n vehicles. \u201cIf you\u2019re trying to minimize those things, widening
\n highways is not the route I\u2019d be taking,\u201d Lee says.\n<\/p>\n