Officials break ground on Highway 65 bypass
Transportation officials broke ground on the $325 million Highway 65 bypass in Lincoln on Friday – more than three decades after a need for the project was identified. Lincoln City Councilman Tom Cosgrove pointed out that, when the thoroughfare was first discussed in 1972, a gallon of gas cost just 39 cents. “This project is a culmination of 35 years of work, dedication, and planning by local, state, federal, and national elected leaders,” he said. “…We’ve proven we can overcome obstacles to get things funded…now it’s time to build it.” The 11.7-mile bypass will span from Industrial Avenue to Sheridan, freeing Downtown Lincoln from commuter congestion. It will cut peak travel time in half from Industrial Avenue through Sheridan, from 48 to 21 minutes. Additionally, local traffic in town should drop 73 percent by 2015, according to the Placer County Transportation Planning Agency. But while funding is currently in place, the state’s deficit threatens to pull the plug on the long-awaited project. “If the legislature doesn’t put the money in the checking account, so to speak, at some point the check will bounce,” said Celia McAdam, PCTPA’s executive director. California Transportation Commissioner Jim Earp cautioned officials to stay vigilant about finding funding sources for future projects, as well as to push to make sure funding isn’t stripped from the bypass. “After all the work that has gone into this, I’d hate to see them yank the funds out– it would just be a crime,” he said. But if all goes as planned, cars could be on the bypass by 2013. Construction firm Desilva Gates was given 60 days to mobilize after signing a contract in June, McAdam said. The bypass will consist of four lanes between Industrial and Nelson Lane and two lanes to Sheridan, though McAdam said PCTPA is pushing for four lanes through Wise Road. Also included are interchanges at Highway 65 and Industrial Avenue, Ferrari Ranch Road, and Sheridan, and signalized intersections at Nelson Lane, Wise Road, and Riosa Road. While financing the project was a struggle amid escalating construction costs and multiple funding diversions, PCTPA eventually collected $192.8 million from the state – including $78.6 million from Proposition 1B, passed by voters in 2006, and $39 from developer fees and local contributions – and an additional $14.6 million in federal funding through Rep. John Doolittle’s efforts. “Today makes it believable when they say Lincoln is going to be the biggest city in the county,” said Doolittle, who admitted Friday could be his last major groundbreaking event as a congressman. “It’s satisfying to see the efforts that my staff and so many other people put into this, to see the groundbreaking and the hundreds of millions beginning to be spent.”
|
Change Location:
|
I hope it's wide enough to handle all of the moving vans full of furniture from foreclosed homes heading south on 65! That's a classic photo...look at at the air. It looks like they are in Mars. I'm sure Lincoln City Council was there...they've got nothing better to do, having spent all the money on excessive projects.
Lincoln in 5 years will be what Elk Grove is today.
Can someone explain how rerouting traffic OUT of Downtown Lincoln will help that area? Give it five years and Downtown Lincoln will be dead -- mark my words.
You two are both going to eat your words. Sure, Lincoln is going through some tough economic times right now, but that is still a good area for families to raise kids and this bypass will be great for everyone!
Highway 65 in downtown Lincoln is very much like Highway 49 in Auburn. There are cars going through on their way to and from other areas that are simply adding unneeded and unwanted congestion for the locals. Highway 49 gets its excess traffic from Nevada County, and Lincoln gets theirs from Sutter County and other places to the North.
Once this thoroughfare is completed Lincoln will have normal traffic downtown that will make this place even better than it already is. It won't die, as bigcouchpotato predicts, it will prosper because folks will once again be able to drive to the store without sitting through two cycles at each stop-light intersection.
bayaryaaan: Everywhere in Northern California has looked like Mars this past week. Why dwell on that?
Gregcalac must be some kind of "official" with an interest in this ("great for everyone"?!) So sad to see the impending death (even more than it already is) of Downtown Lincoln. Was nice while it lasted....
TRY TO TELL ALL THE TOWNS AND SHOP OWNERS ALONG I 80 THAT FROM OAKLAND TO
NEW YORK THAT ? LOOK AT THE TOWNS IN NEVADA. LOVE LOCK/ ELCO / WELLS/ THEY ARE DEAD AFTER I 80 WENT IN HY 40 DRYED UP. I 80 BYPASS ? LINCOLN BYPASS? LOOKS THE SAME
TO ME JUST A LITTLE SHORTER
P.S. I FORGOT HOW ABOUT THE RANCHERS AND FARMS THAT THE BYPASS WILL THKE OUT. BUT THEY WILL BE REPLACED BY THE 80000 UNITS THAT WILL BE GOING IN FROM LINCOLN TO SHERIDAN ?but keep that under your hat nobody knows that yet. WE ARE OUT OF WATER WERE WILL THOES 80000 UNITS GET THERE WATER
Yeah, it's obvious this is purely a sprawl devise we're all paying for for the developers.
Jim Holmes is in the picture what a coincedence.Mister Sell- Out.
I'm having a hard time imagining how a 73% reduction in traffic in front of their stores is going to be a good thing for the business in downtown Lincoln. It's going to be a good thing for commuters but I am unconvinced it will be for business owners. We'll have to wait and see. Something needed to give and I hope the bypass is the answer and that it doesn't kill downtown completely.
And IF the above poster is correct and there are 80,000 homes slated for that corridor, when they are built and the commercial support for those new residents that are coming from, used to and comfortable in an urbanized lifestyle goes in we'll hear more and more "There's a downtown Lincoln? What's there, I've never been."
If/when we lose Rainbow Market even the people who are dedicated to shopping in the downtown Lincoln area will be driven out to the new centers for their daily needs and then since there might as well eat dinner or stop for a frozen yogurt right there.
It seems a little naive to think that the bypass will mark the end of the businesses downtown. I don't see droves of commuters parking their cars and shopping or eating on the way home. Like everyone else, they are just trying to get home to Wheatland, Yuba City, etc.. As a Lincoln resident, I find the traffic during rush hour annoying and it deters me from going through town to Rainbow or anywhere else down there. I would most certainly head over to Rainbow for some groceries if I didn't have to wait several light cycles to get across G Street. During those hours I stay along Joiner, Sterling, etc. And ask anyone that commutes through town, they can't wait for the bypass!! Why because they sit in traffic all the way through town... they're not here spending money. The people that live here, I believe, will frequent these places before as we did prior to the housing boom and keep this place alive once we can conveniently get to these places.
IS THAT JIM DOOLITTLE OR JOHN HOMES
Good job Lincoln. The downtown will survive with proper planning. Take a look at other areas that have grown with the times...a great example would be Paso Robles on the central coast....The downtown area died when 101 detoured the downtown...Planning on the change will bring family business, tourism.(folks love old downtowns)....copy Paso's downtown park...
Lincoln..STAY POSITIVE....negastive
Continued....TOO MANY NEGATIVE ATTITUDES!
WELL WHAT'S IN YOU WALET?
Hello people of Lincoln. This is my first posting here. I'm contemplating moving to Lincoln and have been reading your newspaper for quite some time. I noticed that there are many people leaving LIncoln city because of foreclosure. Is your community accepting of an older couple looking for a place to retire?
Can anyone give me the pros and cons of such a move. We are from the State of Washington close to the Canadian border. Our lot is so large and my husband is so sick with asthma that he is no longer able to care for our property. We are looking for a place where he will be able to breathe better and where the housing lots are not very big.
Any information you can give me will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
that country is hot in the summer it is caled THERMLAND . may not haved spelled that right