After having dealt with the traffic delays caused by the “Fix I-5” project from the begining of June to the end of July, city commuters must now prepare for more starts and stops while traveling through Sacramento.x

Less than a week after Caltrans finished their work on Interstate 5, the city of Sacramento was scheduled to begin roadwork of its own. On Aug. 2, city work crews began resurfacing around ten percent of the streets in the city.

But the resurfacing is nothing new. Linda Tucker, public information officer for the city Department of Transportation, said each year the city’s goal is to resurface about ten percent of city streets.

According to Tucker, the resurfacing must be done every ten years to keep the streets in their top condition.

“That’s why we do a tenth of the city every year, so we can get through the city in ten years,” she said. “This is something we do every year to maintain the right of way and secure the roads for a longer life, but it isn’t new.”

However, there is one minor change this year. Usually, work on resurfacing begins in June and ends in October, with crews spending about a day on each section of the street they are resurfacing. They start working at 9 a.m. and finish at 4 p.m.

This time, the city decided to delay the start of this year’s resurfacing because of the “Fix I-5” project, which wrapped up on July 28.

“We didn’t want to further impact traffic on city streets because we realized that some people might be using city streets and avoiding the freeways all together,” Tucker said.

In order to deal with the truncated work season, the city asked its contractors to stay an extra 30 minutes later this year, finishing work each day at 4:30 p.m.

When resurfacing roads in residential zones, the city will notify residents three days before work starts by placing a notice on the doorknobs of the affected residents.

However, even after the door hangers have been sent out, it’s possible the workers will not do the work on the scheduled day. Because of many variables associated with the process, especially residents parking cars on the road when resurfacing is scheduled to occur, the work may be rescheduled.

If the work is rescheduled in a residential zone, another door hanger will notify residents three days in advance.

Tucker cautioned that if a vehicle is parked on the side of the road during scheduled resurfacing, and work crews cannot find the owner to move the vehicle, they are authorized to have the vehicle towed.

The later workday could affect some residents, but all work on the streets should be done by 4:30 p.m., and the streets should be safe to drive on.

“The best advice is to heed those signs because driving through the project and driving though early can really imbed the materials into your car,” Tucker said. “It would not be advised to do so.”

The roads will be safe to drive on once work crews have removed the barricades from the street.

Area residents have mixed feelings about the maintenance work. All of the residents interviewed by The Union said they understood the need for road maintenance, but many felt frustrated by the amount of work being done.

One such resident was Stacy Dyse, 38, of Sacramento.

“It’s just more frustration with traffic or having to plan ahead to get to work on time,” she said.

Dyse said she would not be affected by the extra 30 minutes of roadwork, because she will stay at her job later, but understands why it would pose a problem for other residents.

Sean Huston, a 25-year-old Vallejo resident and Sacramento commuter, doesn’t think the extra 30 minutes of work is necessary, but instead managerial changes are needed.

“Maybe if they had more people out there, [they] would be able to get their job done a lot better,” Huston said.

Others are more resigned to dealing with the maintenance.

“It’s just a half hour longer of finding detours and stuff,” said Samantha Hines, 18, of Elk Grove.

After Effects of “Fix I-5”
In addition to the regularly scheduled resurfacing, Sacramento was also recently the focus of a $37 million-project to reinforce Interstate 5.

The “Fix I-5” project accomplished its main goal this summer of shoring up the so-called “boat section” of the interstate, Caltrans spokesman Mark Dinger said.

The boat section runs along side the Sacramento River, below the water level. The focus of the project was to update the drainage system and replace the concrete the interstate was built on.

Caltrans expects that the maintenance it completed in July will not need to be repeated for 40 or 50 years.

“We put in very tough, high strength concrete,” Dinger said.

The project experienced only one significant delay: In July, hot weather prohibited workers from applying the polyester concrete they were using. But the delay was not wholly unexpected.

“Of course we expected heat in mid-July—it is Sacramento,” Dinger said.

One delay Caltrans expected but did not experience was traffic related delay. Dinger said the boat section of I-5 usually provides transit to 190,000 vehicles a day, a number that was nearly cut in half during the most visible portions of the project.

According to Dinger, the longest traffic delay was around 25 minutes and was caused by an accident.

“Thanks to drivers that cooperated during our closure we never had any major delays right there,” Dinger said. “We just want to thank Sacramento commuters for their cooperation and patience.”

Dinger added that work will continue on I-5 for several more weeks as crews install a center median and other peripherals are completed.