Driving to Sacramento International Airport from I-5? You’ll have another way to get there
Motorists driving to Sacramento International Airport will be able use a new road connector on Elkhorn Boulevard as an alternative to the airport’s main entrance off Interstate 5, airport officials said Friday.
Construction of the $14.5 million one-mile expansion of Elkhorn Boulevard, from Power Road to the airport, is supposed to start next week and be complete by the end of this year. On Friday, airport officials joined State Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, and Sacramento County Supervisor Patrick Kennedy at a ceremonial groundbreaking for the road extension.
The ceremony took place near the airport Arco gas station, where the road extension will end. The gas station is right past the airport’s entrance.
Airport officials characterized the second direct connection to the airport as an alternative entrance if travel backs up on I-5. Motorists on State Highway 99 could get off at the Elkhorn Boulevard exit and take that road right to the airport, they said.
The connector would also serve as a direct link for traffic between a proposed airport cargo station in Metro Air Park and the airport.
“Our goal has always been to have secondary access to the airport,” TJ Chen, deputy director of airport planning and development said at the groundbreaking ceremony.
Secondary access does exist now but the new connector will be a straight shot.
It’s possible to currently enter the airport from Elkhorn Boulevard using a roundabout route on Bayou Road paralleling I-5 , but it’s about a quarter-mile longer than the planned Elkhorn connector.
Around $11 million of the funding for the new road comes from state transportation funds, money that wouldn’t be possible if the state legislature hadn’t approved an increase in the state gas tax in 2017, McCarty said.
The plan increased gas taxes by 43%.
McCarty said at the groundbreaking that raising gas taxes was necessary, even if it was unpopular.
“I thought about it for a couple of seconds and there’s no free lunch in life,” he said. “And our roads and our infrastructure were deteriorating in Sacramento and across California, and they weren’t going to fix themselves.”
The debate over gas taxes continues today. The oil industry has been citing California’s high state taxes on gas in its battle with California Governor Gavin Newsom over his plan to rein in oil company profits.
The road connector is just one part of a $1.3 billion makeover of Sacramento International Airport.
Other project include a pedestrian walkway connecting the check-in and departure gate area of Terminal B, new airport gates and a new rental car center and parking garage.
