A project designed to reduce traffic congestion at a longtime freeway bottleneck in the Roseville-Rocklin region has gotten underway. Luke McNeel-Caird, with the Placer County Transportation Planning Agency, says a third lane is being added, starting at the Interstate 80/Highway 65 interchange, and going two miles north on 65 to Pleasant Grove Boulevard…

click to listen to Luke McNeel-Caird

Caird says this is just the first phase of improvements, at a cost of 50-million dollars. He says there’s no funding available yet for the rest of the project…

click to listeen to Luke McNeel-Caird

But Caird says with the level of traffic congestion in this corridor at all times of the day, they didn’t want to wait until they could fund the full cost, which is estimated at 450-million dollars. He says finding the rest of the money could take another decade to obtain. State and federal financial help would also be needed. Future phases will add one additional lane to each of the four connectors between I-80 and Highway 65. Caird says traffic commonly backs up about a mile from the interchange, on westbound I-80, and about three miles on eastbound I-80. One of the reasons for the chronic congestion is because the interchange was designed and built in the mid-1980’s. Since then, Placer County’s population has more than tripled.