How will you get to work?

In case you haven't noticed the big, blinking signs on local freeways, the Fix I-5 Project is about to begin. If you don't have a backup plan, you need one now.

According to the project schedule press release, beginning Friday, May 30th at 8pm, all northbound lanes of I-5 from the interchange to Richards will be closed. Yes... closed. As in, NO you can't go that way. Friday, June 13th at 8pm, the reverse will happen and all southbound lanes (except 2 lanes for J Street exiting only) will be closed.

This is going to make a major mess of downtown. Even if you usually don't drive anywhere near I-5, your routes to work will be more crowded. Please make sure you have an alternate route worked out. If you can, talk to your boss about working an alternate schedule, biking, telecommuting or simply going on vacation!

Links to help you plan your routes:

North Natomas Transportation Management Association

Sacramento Regional Transit

Fix I-5 Page

Sacramento Regional Travel 511 Info

YoloBus

Amtrak Capitol Corridor

The Chaos (aka CalTrans) is about to begin...

The worst traffic snafu you've ever seen in Sacramento is coming... and it's going to last for at least 8 months. Yes you read that right, for 8 months Sacramento will be thrown into traffic chaos. According to the Bee, beginning in February or March, Caltrans will shut down sections of I-5 through downtown daily for months and months to repair the section of I-5 that is below river-level. The current plan is to close one or two lanes in each direction from Richards to the 50 interchange.

I don't mean to be alarmist but this is going to be a serious mess! Regardless of what time of day, the downtown area is always slow as people try to get off downtown, get over to the interchange at 50/80/99 and the tourists get lost because signage is bad. Can you imagine what the downtown area will look like during Jazz Jubilee? It's bad enough Jubilee weekend that most locals avoid downtown like the plague but now we have to content with tourists and closed lanes. I think we'll go to LA that weekend... the traffic can't be worse.

The road's a mess and it has to get fixed, I'll give Caltrans that. I'm pretty sure that building a major freeway below river level was not the best idea and that in a post-Katrina world, we really need an upgrade. I wish the plans included a raised section so that we won't have to tear it all back up again in 30 years.

My bigger concern is the possibility of the City to just overlook the entire situation. Quoting the Bee's quote "Hopefully more folks will take light rail, buses and carpool" city traffic official Hector Barron said.

Uhh.... what light rail? The City let builders develop the entire North Natomas area without light rail. Where's the DNA line? Stuck on someone's desk. Buses... there's a thought. Hypothetically if I wanted to ride the bus from the Kohl's in North Natomas to downtown it'll take between 25 and 46 minutes, assuming all buses are on time and I only want to travel on the weekdays during rush hour. Best I can tell, you CANNOT get downtown from North Natomas on the weekends. According to RT's online trip planner "There is no service on the day or at the time you've requested. Please try a different date or time."

My recommendation to the city- you'd better get ready to throw some serious funding towards the North Natomas Transportation Management Association and be prepared to cover alternate routes with bus coverage and weekend routes. You cannot ask people to 'hopefully' use alternate routes if you don't provide them. I'd also up the number of carpool spots in City lots and make parking with an authorized carpool free during the traffic problems. Let City workers with non-essential job duties telecommute, work alternate schedules or give carpool bonuses during the first month in particular.

But whatever they decide to do, they have to do something... just waiting until the chaos begins just isn't a good option.