The California DOT (Caltrans) recently held a groundbreaking ceremony to begin work on the $370 million SAC 5 Corridor Enhancement Project along I-5 in the Sacramento area.
According to the Caltrans website, the project will rehabilitate pavement, construct new high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, and install new fiber optic lines, among other work.
The groundbreaking ceremony was led by State Transportation Agency Secretary Davis S. Kim, who said the SAC 5 project was the largest highway project to be seen in Sacramento since the original I-5 was finished in 1975, according to a report from The Sacramento Bee.
The proposed work on the project includes rehabilitating 67 lane miles of mainline pavement and all ramps and connectors with a 40-year pavement service life. In addition, the project includes adding auxiliary lanes and extending acceleration and deceleration lanes in order to increase weaving time and reduce traffic impacts. Caltrans says many ramps and connectors along the corridor have less than optimal transition and weaving distances for vehicles to accelerate or decelerate while entering or exiting the highway.
Work on the SAC 5 project also will include adding 23 new lanes miles of HOV or bus/carpool lanes. Other components of the project include replacing a pedestrian overcrossing and updating curb ramps to meet ADA standards as well as constructing two new sound walls.
According to Caltrans, the goal of the project is to extend service life of the pavement, reduce maintenance expenditures, provide improved traffic operations tools, and improve ride quality for the traveling public. It also would contribute to relieving congestion by promoting the use of high-occupancy vehicles with the new HOV lanes, and is intended to boost ride-sharing and transit ridership.
The entire project is scheduled for completion in December 2022.
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SOURCE: Caltrans
IMAGE: @CaltransHQ on Twitter
