Nevada County is moving ahead with plans to unplug Combie Road during peak traffic times.

The worst periods are when traffic is coming and going from the four schools near or adjoining the South Nevada County road, said the area’s county Supervisor Sue Horne.

Traffic is also heavy when commuters are traveling in and out of Lake of the Pines or nearby developments in the mornings and evenings.

Motorists will start seeing traffic-flow improvements next year when the county goes ahead with $500,000 in work on Combie Road at the Lake of the Pines entrance and Magnolia Road intersection. The project will provide an additional eastbound through-lane on Combie/Magnolia and extend the existing eastbound right-turn lane pocket at Lake of the Pines to Combie Road. The turn pocket will also be converted to a through right-turn lane.

The average daily traffic count on the road is 13,000 vehicles but county projections are for an increase to 19,000, based on current development plans.

Combie Road is targeted for widening in 2011. Expected to cost about $2.3 million, the Department of Public Works Department plan calls for five lanes instead of three between Highway 49 and the Lake of the Pines entrance.

A $300,000 project to extend the right turn lane at Highway 49 and Combie Road for westbound traffic is also planned for 2011.

Horne said that traffic flows are particularly slow when school starts and is let out because of four schools – Magnolia, Forest Lake, Cottage Hill and Bear River – on or near the road and another – Cornerstone – nearby.

“There’s a lot of traffic in the morning and there will be more when Saddle Ridge is developed and Dark Horse turns around,” Horne said. “We’ve needed the roads improved to take care of capacity. It’s long overdue.”

Sherry Fiser, co-owner of Auburn Country Florist on Combie Road, said that the owner of the commercial development her business is in plans to wait until widening starts before repaving the parking lot.

“We can’t wait to see it widened,” Fiser said. “It can only improve the traffic flow and will also improve the look along the road.”

Additional lanes will make it easier to get the florist’s van in and out of the parking lot, she said.

“The South County is just exploding and we absolutely need it,” Fiser said.

Thirty-year Magnolia Road resident Robert Mosely said the widening is needed because of all the school traffic. When Mosely moved to the area, Magnolia Road was still a dirt road.

“It’s a big bottleneck at Lake of the Pines and they need a bypass lane,” he said. “A lot of the time, it ties up traffic way back.”

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