Solano County’s new Interstate 80 Express Lanes will soon give a bit of relief to Bay Area commuters.
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and the Solano County Transportation Authority are working together on a three-year, $243 million project for the west and east sides of Interstate 80 to bring 18 miles of much-needed express lanes to the congested Vacaville-Fairfield corridor.
The new express lanes, also known as High-Occupancy Toll (HOT) Lanes, permit use by a single-occupancy vehicle upon payment of a toll.
Over half the funding for the project, $123 million, comes from money set aside by Senate Bill 1, also known as the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017 (the “Gas Tax”). The bill, considered to be one of the largest transportation investments in the state’s history, helps to repair roads, improve safety, and expand public transit systems.
Caltrans and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) are tapping O.C. Jones & Sons, Inc., Bridgeway Civil Constructors, Vanguard, Mike Brown Electric, and Independent Structures for executing the project.
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“Caltrans is nearing completion of constructing the actual lanes needed for this project,” said Alexander Tidd, Solano County Public Information Officer, Caltrans. “Possibly as soon as January. ... That said, there is still plenty to do to get these lanes fully operational by fall 2025.”
Sandwiched between the two mega-regions of the Bay Area and the greater Sacramento area in California, Solano County’s Express Lane network expects to expand north to meet the Caltrans District 3 Express Lanes in Yolo County and south from Red Top Road to Vallejo, although that expansion is still in the planning stages.
Solano County’s population, currently hovering near 450,000, is expected to increase by up to 24 percent by 2040 and could see an increase in traffic over 30 percent. Fairfield’s Air Base Parkway is one of the busiest locations in Solano County, with over 200,000 vehicles traveling through daily.
“There have been no major widening projects on I-80 through Vacaville since 1973,” Tidd said. “The project improves access for emergency response and helps Solano residents get to work and home.
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“The project offers non-carpool eligible drivers more reliable travel times, improves public transit utilization by reducing public transit travel times in the corridor, decreases congestion, and meets existing and future travel demand within the project location.”
The new lanes are also expected to create a better flow of tourism between Lake Tahoe, San Francisco, and the North Bay Wine Country, and will also assist Solano County businesses.
Caltrans said that the movement of goods will also be improved. The value of freight traveling through Solano County from the San Francisco Bay Area to Sacramento (both truck and rail) is projected to more than double between 2025 and 2040.
According to Caltrans, express lanes increase person throughput by encouraging mass transit and carpooling. However, congestion in all lanes can be reduced by maximizing the flow of express lanes through active management.
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Similar to carpool lanes, drivers with three or more occupants are permitted unrestricted access to express lanes, but express lanes may be actively managed. The occupancy requirements and hours of operation can be changed depending upon the circumstances.
In other words, express lanes sell the spare capacity by siphoning traffic from mixed-flow lanes and reducing overall congestion.
As a “dynamic traffic management system,” there is a traffic control center in which operators collect data from roadway sensors and by observation. They are able to change the occupancy requirement of the express lane and communicate that information back to motorists through large electronic messaging boards that overhang the freeway. Tolls are dialed up and down to encourage or discourage non-carpoolers from entering the lane.
Caltrans and crews from its general engineering contractor, Berkeley-based O.C. Jones & Sons, Inc., spent two and a half years of the project removing oleanders from the I-80 median in Vacaville, constructing the new travel lanes, working with electricians to install electrical and communication infrastructure along I-80, building a concrete median barrier wall, and widening four bridges in Vacaville.
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“This was all done with I-80 open for normal traffic,” Tidd said. “We painted new lane lines on the new pavement while also repaving and painting lane lines on the existing lanes to integrate the new express lanes.”
In addition to adding approximately 10 miles of travel lane through Vacaville and converting existing HOV lane through Fairfield, the scope of work for this project includes the following, and more:
- Excavating 226,000 cubic yards of material for roadway and structure construction
- Constructing 134 drainage systems
- Retrofitting and widening four bridges — two bridges over creeks and two over city streets
- Constructing five retaining walls (6,000 feet), two soundwalls, and a pedestrian path
- Building 60,000 feet of concrete barrier
- Installing 12.5 miles of fiberoptic line
Caltrans said that project will maximize efficiency through technology to reduce congestion throughout the corridor while also encouraging carpooling and transit use.
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The MTC, the transportation planning, financing, and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area, is tapping TransCore to install all electronics, including towers, cameras, and other information-gathering devices along the entire 20-mile stretch of the project in both directions of I-80 in Vacaville and Fairfield. The high-tech system captures drivers’ license plates to enable the billing for using the new express lanes.
MTC is also responsible for the operation of the express lanes’ electronics and answering questions from drivers about things like: how to sign up for fast track, how to pay for using express lanes, and how to pay fines if they are caught using them without payment. MTC operates the mechanism to collect the fees and to fine people.
“MTC and its contractor need to install all the electronics, including towers, cameras, and other information-gathering devices,” Tidd said. “Most of the remaining work involves completing and testing the electronic toll system, camera systems, and the fiber optic cable systems.”
“The contractor is also completing the construction of a new pedestrian path that will connect two neighborhoods in Vacaville, along with sound walls and landscaping,” Tidd added.
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According to Caltrans, the project is 80 percent complete and is expected to be finished during fall 2025. There will also be an additional one year of plant establishment period that starts after construction has been completed.
