YOLO COUNTY, Calif. — There's been road work happening along I-80 between the Yolo Causeway and West Sacramento since summer 2023. It's part of the Yolo I-80 Pavement Rehabilitation Project to fix outdated pavement.
Caltrans District 3 spokesperson Dennis Keaton says it wasn't built to withstand as much population growth and the traffic that comes with it.
He says the project area is approximately 11 miles long and told ABC10 it should be on track to finish by mid-2026.
"One of the reasons why this is a segment that takes quite a long time is not only because of the length of the project where you're talking about Yolo County off of Chiles Road all the way into West Sacramento, but because the pavement has to be replaced by the removal of the old pavement and you have to go down about two feet or even more, just to remove the old pavement. Then they have to reset everything with the new steel and the new concrete," said Keaton.
Keaton says when it comes to concrete, you can't pour too soon this time of year since chilly temperatures could cause concrete not to cure properly and they'd have to redo it.
This project is different from the managed lanes project or the Yolo 80 Corridor Improvements Project.
The managed lanes project would deal with the stretch of road between the Yolo/Solano County line on I-80 into West Sacramento and onto Highway 50 in Sacramento County and create one managed lane in each direction. Keaton says it won't necessarily be a toll lane, but says they could be carpool lanes depending on funding and public feedback.
He says the amount of funding they get will dictate what exactly this project becomes and whether they have the funding to build everything the public wants to see.
Construction could start as early as this fall and wrap up in late 2027.
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