If your morning commute takes you on Interstate 80 toward Sacramento, you might want to leave a little earlier. Starting this morning (7am) and for the next couple of weeks, one of the westbound lanes will be closed under Newcastle Union Pacific Railroad Bridge. They are lowering the freeway to meet the new federal standards of 16-and-a-half feet of clearance. Caltrans spokeswoman Liza Whitmore says they’ll be starting with the far right lane…
With the three lanes converging into two, that is expected to cause a backup, which Whitmore says could be just as bad or worse on weekends…
This is the last leg of the ‘Raise 80’ project, but because you can’t lift a railroad bridge, they are lowering the roadway about a foot. No work is needed on the Eastbound lanes because the bridge is higher on that side. Whitmore says they expect to be done by May 26.
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