Three road projects currently under construction along the State Route 20 corridor in Yuba County will provide major improvements to the highway – widening shoulders, straightening curves, flattening several hills to increase motorists’ sight distance, and other substantial changes.

SR 20 in the Yuba County area, a section of an extensive highway in the state’s north central region, is the principal east-west route for motorists travelling between the Yuba-Sutter area and Nevada County. As a heavily used route, the corridor has experienced a good deal of deterioration, and the Yuba 20 projects’ long-term repairs will ultimately mean a smoother, safer ride for local drivers and the region’s commercial operators.

An initial $28.5 million project was completed in 2019 in the Smartsville area of Yuba County. This project included the construction of a new 305-foot bridge, realignment and repaving of the roadway, and drainage improvements. Flatiron Construction was the general contractor.

Johny Tan, Caltrans Project Manager comments, “As many motorists who travel through the Smartsville area daily know, this segment of highway had no shoulders and many curves. This project provides uniform 12-foot-wide traffic lanes and 8-foot shoulders, improves clear recovery zones, improves sight distances for through traffic, and drivers on turning onto Highway 20 can see approaching vehicles better. We’ve also upgraded the drainage and added turn pockets. The new pavement offers motorists a smoother ride and quiet pavement.”

Addressing significant safety problems along the route is a major goal of the Yuba 20 projects, says Tan. “These projects will rehabilitate pavement on State Route 20 with a 20-year design life. This will also improve safety and operations for all road users. Shoulders will be widened to a standard 8 feet to provide an improved motorist recovery area and to better accommodate bicycles and pedestrians. The highway will be realigned and adjusted to address non-standard horizontal and vertical curves. Right and left turn lanes are being added at several locations and the truck climbing lane is being extended to reduce collisions and increase operational improvements.”

Additionally, highway lighting is being added to improve the stopping sight distance. The Dry Creek Bridge, built in 1938, will be replaced with a new bridge to address scour issues, provide standard shoulders and bridge rail, and strengthened to allow full permit loads and accommodate a path for bicycles and pedestrians. There are three Yuba County projects currently underway.

The $16.2 million project to rehabilitate the pavement, widen shoulders, and realign the roadway began in spring 2019 and is expected to be complete this fall. The general contractor is Lamon Construction.

This project includes:

• Rebuilding 4.4 lane miles of highway
• Widening shoulders to a standard 8-foot width
• Installing centerline rumble strips
• Extending, replacing, and upsizing culverts
• Providing a 20-foot clear recovery zone
• Flattening roadway humps to provide adequate sight distance

Construction began this past spring on the $61.5 million project to straighten and flatten roadway curves and slopes, widen shoulders, construct a new bridge, and rehabilitate the roadway. Teichert Construction is the general contractor and completion is expected in fall 2021.

This project includes:

• Resurfacing, restoring, and rehabilitating a 4.5-mile section of roadway
• Widening shoulders to a standard 8-foot width
• Constructing a new 334-foot Dry Creek Bridge that meets current design standards and has a multi-use pathway
• Straightening the curve between Stacy Ann Drive and Sicard Flat Road
• Flattening the slope of the roadway between Valhalla Way and Digger Pine Lane

The $54 million Timbuctoo project will straighten curves, widen shoulders, construct a new bridge, and rehabilitate a section of the roadway. Construction began in spring 2020 and completion is expected in fall 2021. Flatiron Construction is the general contractor.

This project includes:

• Upgrading a 2-mile section of roadway
• Straightening curves on a section of the highway
• Widening segments of highway to create uniform 12-foot-wide lanes
• Widening shoulders to a standard 8-foot width
• Constructing a new 805-foot bridge on the realigned section of highway
• Increasing sight distances for motorists traveling on the highway

The Loma Rica and Brown Valley projects are being funded in part by California’s Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017 – or SB-1 – a legislative package designed to invest $54 billion over the next decade to fix roads, freeways, and bridges in communities across the state, as well as putting more dollars toward transit and safety.

Tan says that extensive drainage improvements have been completed because the service life of existing culverts was coming to its end and needed upgrading or replacement. Frequent flooding was an issue on the Loma Rica project, where the road profile was raised on one section by approximately a half-foot to 1-foot to reduce potential flooding.

Beyond the need for culvert replacement and drainage improvements, other construction challenges have been addressed on the expansive, multi-phased Yuba 20 undertaking, Tan reports. “On the Smartsville project, an added challenge to the project involved construction of the 305-foot structure. The structure was very challenging to construct as the contract required placement of precast girders on a highly super-elevated bridge within a horizontal curve. To construct the new bridge, 10 precast girders ranging from 159 to 166 feet in length were placed. It was quite a spectacle for these girders to be transported from Lathrop in San Joaquin County through downtown Marysville and up Highway 20. The California Highway Patrol assisted with traffic control through turns and intersections.

“Significant effort and teamwork were required by state bridge staff and contractor staff to plan and execute this feat. Site access was a driving feature of this challenge and necessitated the girder placement with a large 500-ton capacity mobile crane. During several of the picks, the crane’s capacity was tested at up to 90 percent of its lifting capacity. This necessitated a significant amount of planning and review.”

He adds that the beginning of the Loma Rica project coincided with utility company response to the devastating 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California. “As a result, minor delays in relocating utility facilities compounded, resulting in the Department and contractor partnering to partially construct the roadway prism and drainage facilities and committing to return in the 2020 season to complete the project rather than delay the entire project by a season.”

Although the significant amount of rock blasting required on the Timbuctoo project would seem to especially challenging, Tan says in reality it is simple and safe. “The largest challenge is coordinating traffic control between two contractors. So far, traffic has been held for about 20 to 30 minutes. We anticipate some blasts closer to the highway will require about 1-hour to 2-hour delays to allow for safety inspections after the blast and for debris to be cleared off the roadway.”