Overnight traffic control expected next week for Caltrans SR-70 project

Robert Summa, Appeal-Democrat, Marysville, Calif.
·4 min read

Apr. 26—As part of its $164 million State Route 70 Binney Junction Roadway Rehabilitation and Complete Streets Project, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) said it will conduct one-way overnight traffic controls next week to further prepare the site for construction.

Set to take place from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday through Thursday between 18th Street and 24th Street near the Union Pacific Railroad overpass, workers will be moving "large construction equipment for an ongoing drainage improvement construction project to rebuild pump plants at two locations," Caltrans said.

Those pumps are necessary because Caltrans plans to lower the roadway underneath the overpass to control potential road flooding.

The entire project, which is scheduled to start in March 2025, has been a point of contention for city officials. Initial plans included the widening of Highway 70 to five lanes, replacing and lengthening two existing railroad structures, lowering the existing Highway 70 under two overpasses, removal of existing access to and from 17th Street, relocation of an existing levee, signalization of two existing intersections and rehabilitating existing pavement.

In early 2021, the city of Marysville filed a lawsuit in Yuba County Superior Court challenging the decision of Caltrans to approve the expansion project, according to court documents.

In its petition to the court filed on Jan. 5, 2021, the city of Marysville alleged that Caltrans failed to comply with the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) when it approved the project, based on the Final Environmental Impact Report and Final Environmental Assessment, the Appeal previously reported.

In 2021, the Appeal reported that the project area would run from just south of 14th Street to just north of Cemetery Road. At the time, it was an estimated $111 million project that was fully funded with federal and state dollars. Construction was estimated to take three years.

Caltrans completed its environmental report document in December 2020, the Appeal previously reported. Marysville alleged at the time that it made comments on the Environmental Impact Report saying that the project would have significant environmental effects on air quality, traffic, noise, and land use impacts as well as impacts on emergency access and emergency response and utilities.

According to the suit, the Environmental Impact Report did not disclose or analyze those environmental effects or identify any mitigation concerns for adoption, the Appeal previously reported.

Marysville Mayor Chris Branscum, in an interview with the Appeal in 2023, said the environmental report put forth by Caltrans was "a significant shortfall on compliance with CEQA with respect to the interests of Marysville."

The expansion of Highway 70 has been a concern for the city because leaders expect more traffic to flow through the area as potentially more drivers take advantage of the wider road. Marysville, a city of about 12,000, is essentially divided by two state highways that go through it — Highway 70 and Highway 20. These highways are not straight continuous paths. They force drivers to move through the heart of the city, winding their way around landmarks such as Ellis Lake.

According to local residents and officials, the effects of these highways are profound. Along with constant red light running and the refusal to obey stop signs, drivers along these highways will often use local side streets to mitigate any lights or other obstacles that may add another minute to their daily commute.

To address these issues, Marysville officials are currently developing more traffic calming measures for city side streets to lessen cut-through traffic. Traffic calming measures are tested methods used to artificially slow vehicles down in a specific area.

Some of these measures have already been implemented, such as on the 5th Street Bridge. But more is needed, according to city officials. Earlier this month, Blue Zones Project Yuba Sutter helped the city by conducting traffic counts on D, E, and H streets as part of the city's 14th Street Traffic Calming Multi Model Pilot Project.

The project, officials said, aims to calm drivers that cut through Highway 20 traffic on 14th street as the "high volume of traffic and vehicular speed has caused many residents to feel unsafe," the Appeal previously reported. Several residents have spoken out about these issues during council meetings and other city led public forums in recent years.

Thanks to a "mode shift grant" from the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, the city planned to implement the pilot program with the goal of reducing vehicular travel and encouraging more bicycle and pedestrian usage.

"Our ultimate goal is that the traffic calming measures will slow down traffic and that residents will feel safer," Marysville Public Works Director Vincenzo Corazza previously said in a statement. "We are glad to be partnering with Blue Zones Project, who have been instrumental in helping the city secure grants to improve the conditions of our streets. Their support in this project will help make this pilot project more successful."