Cross-country truckers, Bay Areas skiers, Reno-bound gamblers and long-suffering Placer County motorists will soon bid good riddance to the rough ride along Interstate 80 over Donner Summit.

With another round of California State Transportation Commission funding approvals this week, Caltrans is targeting 2012 as the date for completion of hundreds of millions of dollars in overlay projects designed to smooth out the notoriously unforgiving drive over the Sierra.

Much of the work will involve laying down a coat of gray concrete – not blacktop – that retains the retro look of a superhighway initially built in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Long stretches of the original road surface remain from those early days to jar motorist memories.

Caltrans’ Marysville office released information Thursday on a series of projects from a fifth of a mile east of Colfax to the Nevada State line.

“The road is worn out,” Caltrans spokeswoman Shelly Chernicki said. “It needs some plastic surgery.”

The state transportation panel voted Wednesday to free $70 million in construction funding for 11 miles of asphalt concrete overlay along Interstate 80 from 5 miles east of Colfax to Alta Road.

Another $73 million was approved for 5.5 miles of concrete replacement on the freeway in higher elevations prone to snow where concrete provides longer life for the road surface than asphalt.

Thursday’s transportation commission meeting saw more funding for the summit, with $78 million dedicated by the board to 5 miles of concrete lane replacement from Donner Summit west to Donner Park.

Four other projects are set to start this year, all intended to provide a smoother surface over the Sierra.

Still to be determined for both a start time and end of construction, a 5.5-mile stretch of the freeway from Colfax to the Magra Road exit is estimated to cost $200 million. Called the Colfax Narrows in the project list, it’s in Caltrans’ plans for widening and surface improvements.

But all the other projects – with an estimated total price tag of $588 million – are being targeted for completion by Caltrans by 2012.

Ken Grehm, director of Placer County’s Public Works Department, said that the county is working with Caltrans on plans that would minimize the impact of work along the narrow stretch east of Colfax.

Because it’s so narrow, the Colfax Narrows portion of the project will need to be closed down late at night for construction and traffic diverted onto Rollins Lake Road. Larger trucks may have to be re-routed for a short time at night onto Highway 49 at Highway 20, he said.

Grehm described the Caltrans move to resurface the Sierra route as something that has been “a long time coming.”

“It’s been beaten up by tire chains and by the snow,” Grehm said. “It will be a great improvement for the road.”

The Journal’s Gus Thomson can be reached at gust@goldcountrymedia.com.