Transportation Infrastructure Improvements:
Will Placer County be a Winner or A Whiner?
by Celia McAdam, Executive Director
Placer County Transportation Planning Agency
If you’re counting on the State to fix congestion on Interstate 80’s bottleneck at the Sacramento/Placer County line, you may be stuck in traffic for a long time. And the wait could get longer. According to Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) projections, Placer residents are facing a 600 percent increase in traffic congestion by 2030.
Placer County Transportation Planning Agency (PCTPA) has carefully managed finances and pinched every penny from Federal and State funds to help deliver the transportation projects necessary to solve Placer County’s transportation dilemma. The new interchanges at I-80/Douglas Blvd and Sierra College Blvd, and the start of work on the I-80 Bottleneck are the result of those efforts.
But the fact is that Federal and State transportation funding is rapidly drying up. Funding from the infrastructure bonds is being offset by State budget deficits, which are again taking billions of promised transportation funding.
When the choices are made about where transportation investments are made in California, will Placer County be a winner or a whiner? It comes down to local money. It is clear that if we want to solve the nightmare traffic scenario of 2030, we can’t count on the State or the Feds – it will be up to Placer County residents.
What we can do with the money we’ve got…
• We can complete I-80 Bottleneck widening from Eureka Road to the Placer/Sacramento County line, and some additional improvements westbound to SR 65 by 2011. We can do the remaining eastbound improvements, possibly by 2022 or 2024
• We can build a 2 lane Lincoln Bypass with signalized intersections north of Ferrari Ranch Road, starting in 2008
• We can complete the I-80/Sierra College Boulevard interchange reconstruction.
• We can complete some operational improvements to SR 49 in North Auburn
• We can determine and preserve an alignment for a new road to connect SR 65 and SR 70/99 (Placer Parkway)
• We can run transit services at roughly today’s levels
• We can widen a portion (perhaps half) of SR 65 between I-80 and Lincoln from 4 to 6 lanes around 2020
• We can continue to do maintenance on about half of our roads.
Without new, local money…
• No further improvements to I-80 would likely happen until 2035 or beyond.
• Lincoln Bypass will only be 2 lanes, not the 4 lane freeway that is needed.
• We won’t be able to build the Placer Parkway until at least 2035
• We can’t afford to add enough or the types of transit service to provide for the needs of our growing senior and disabled population
• We cannot afford to add commuter rail service on the Capitol Corridor
• The roads we cannot afford to maintain will suffer worsening pavement conditions, and repairs will be more costly.
...and the list goes on.
As one of the few counties in California without dedicated local transportation funds, Placer County is losing out. For decades, PCTPA has pinched pennies and delivered. Highway 65, the Douglas Boulevard/Interstate 80 Interchange, and many local transportation improvements are the direct result of conservative financial management, creative financing and strong partnerships with local cities, Placer County, homebuilders and other stakeholders.
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Tunnel at I-80 / Douglas Blvd interchange |
Capitol Corridor rail service |
Over the last three years, PCTPA has worked with a bipartisan steering committee of local leaders to identify which funding sources could most effectively pay for necessary transportation projects. The committee considered a wide variety of funding alternatives and condensed the large list of potential projects so that the focus would be on “needs” rather than “wants.” Research shows that Placer voters are willing to invest to provide basic levels of service and PCTPA is careful to not overreach. More info...
This website is aimed at giving residents information and receiving public input regarding what should be done to fix the transportation crisis.
Investing a few minutes of time reviewing information and providing feedback could ultimately save commuters hours stuck in traffic. Transportation improvements are vital to maintaining Placer residents’ high quality of life, but the people must ultimately determine if they want to be winners or whiners when it comes to making those improvements a reality.
Download Info Sheet (PDF)
