Caltrans project drags on, still no lanes
Jan. 15, 2013
By Katy Grimes
For at least four to six months, the Capitol City Freeway (I-80) in Sacramento has been devoid of painted lanes.
I took this photo last week, driving West on I-80, near P. Street, and the Hwy. 99, Hwy. 50, interchange. This is what this section of freeway has looked like for months. I was on the freeway again over the weekend, and it looked the same.
While Caltrans has been resurfacing this section of I-80 at a snails’ pace, drivers have had to fend for themselves. This resurfacing has taken months… probably six months at this point in time.
Frankly, I am impressed with Sacramento drivers. The Capitol City Freeway, I-80 dissects downtown Sacramento and is one of the most heavily used freeways in the vicinity. So far, I’ve only seen near collisions, bumper rubs, really bad lane changes, and lots of honking and middle-finger salutes. I started avoiding that section of freeway when possible.
Two months ago, I tried to locate information about the project on the Caltrans website, but merely got a couple of dead links, and could not find the name of the project manager. But other projects were listed, and included the names and phone numbers of the project managers.
Monday, I finally stumbled on this when I searched the Caltrans website for ‘Hwy 50’ and ‘Capitol City Freeway’:
US 50
[IN THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA AREA]
MOTORISTS ARE SUBJECT TO LANE REDUCTIONS IN EACH DIRECTION FROM 9TH ST
TO 34TH ST /IN SACRAMENTO/ (SACRAMENTO CO) FROM 1000 HRS TO 1700 HRS MONDAY
THRU FRIDAY THRU 1/14/13 – DUE TO CONSTRUCTION
and this:
– CAPITAL CITY FREEWAY
THE SOUTHBOUND CONNECTOR TO EASTBOUND & WESTBOUND US 50 /IN SACRAMENTO/
(SACRAMENTO CO) IS CLOSED FROM 2300 HRS EACH NIGHT TO 0500 HRS EACH MORNING
TUESDAY THRU THURSDAY THRU 1/17/13 – DUE TO CONSTRUCTION – A DETOUR
IS AVAILABLE
According to Caltrans, the road project is supposed to end Jan. 17. What a coincidence! I wonder if they will add lanes, instead of the free-for-all this section of freeway has become.
I am stunned that California’s transportation and road work agency has allowed this resurfacing project to drag on so long, and never even put in temporary lane stripes. Driver safety is such a risk, I’m shocked that a television crew hasn’t been out here filming.
What is this state coming to? Is there any accountability? And why doesn’t Caltrans make it easy to call?
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Caltrans and the local Sacramento regional transit authority do not care about this freeway or any other in the region. They have chosen to set aside virtually all transit money received from all sources for light rail projects. Similarly, there is no spending on bus service. Business 80 has not had a single lane added since the 1950s. Traffic between downtown and CalExpo is absolutely horrible at all times of the day, excepting the hours between 10 PM and 6 AM. They have no interest in maintaining the vital vehicle arteries in the region. In fact they are proud of the priorities they have set.
Hey, this is the same gov that brought you a $300 million payroll system that will never work and a $500 million court electronic filing system that was never implemented- 100% wasted money.
You should see some of the freeways down here in socal. The 5, 405, and 118 have had their lines moved 3 or 4 times and now you cant tell which line is the real one. They are everywhere.
The widening of the 118 about 2 years ago left that freeway in a major mess and it used to be one of the good ones.
The 5 is in patches all over the place. Dont drive it if you have something breakable in your car.
The 405 intersection with the 101 is the MOST horrid intersection in the world. (news says so too) It takes about 45 minutes to go 7 miles. They are working on it but my guess is, it wont improve much. They put in a carpool lane and that took about 6 months of ok travel and then back to chaos.