Looming ‘Fix 99’ freeway closure may be Sacramento area’s largest ever. Here’s what to know

Transportation officials and local law enforcement are continuing to brace Sacramento-area commuters for a major construction project that will fully close a busy stretch of Highway 99 for more than four days starting Friday night.

Approximately four miles of the freeway — from 47th Avenue through the Highway 50 interchange, in both directions — will be shut down continuously for just over 100 hours, from 8 p.m. this Friday, June 11, through 4 a.m. Wednesday, June 16.

“This will be the largest closure the Sacramento region has probably ever seen,” Caltrans spokeswoman Angela DaPrato wrote in an email.

The rip-the-bandage strategy is an effort to get the work finished quickly, avoiding what Caltrans said might otherwise take six months of partial closures.

Here’s a rundown on what exactly is closing, and why.

Why is the ‘Fix Sac 99’ project necessary? What’s being done?

Caltrans will be replacing the bridge deck of the freeway at the 21st Avenue overcrossing, which was built 62 years ago. Highway officials say the road work is a preventive measure meant to extend the roadway’s lifespan “before emergency operations are necessary.”

“There is currently corrosion on the surface deck, concrete spalling, cracks, the joint seals need to be replaced, and the bridge deck has begun to deteriorate due to wear and tear from high traffic volumes, freight movement, weather and age,” Caltrans said in its initial announcement of the closure.

The deck will be replaced using “innovative accelerated bridge construction techniques” to complete the work rapidly, Caltrans said in a news release.

A more detailed explanation of the techniques is found on the Caltrans webpage for the project: The contracting company, Bridgeway Civil Constructors, will “pre-cast and inspect the girders off-site away from the construction site then haul the girders to the location of the bridge deck where crews will bind the girders together and overlay the deck.” Caltrans says a similar method was used to replace the Echo Summit Bridge on Highway 50 in 2020.

During the four-day closure, Caltrans will halt other freeway work around Sacramento, including an ongoing project on the elevated W-X section of the Capital City Freeway just west of the interchange with Highway 99.

What will be closed?

According to Caltrans, ramp and connector lane closures will occur at:

▪ The on-ramp from 16th Street to eastbound Highway 50

▪ The on-ramp from 29th Street/H Street to westbound Business 80/Capital City Freeway

▪ The on-ramp from 29th Street/N Street to westbound Business 80/Capital City Freeway

▪ The on-ramp from 29th Street/T Street to southbound Highway 99

▪ The on-ramp from Broadway to southbound Highway 99

▪ The offramp from southbound Highway 99 to 12th Street

▪ The offramp from northbound Highway 99 to 12th Street

▪ The on-ramp from 14th Avenue/30th Street to southbound Highway 99

▪ The on-ramp (slip) from Fruitridge Road to northbound Highway 99

▪ The on-ramp (loop) from Fruitridge Road to northbound Highway 99

▪ The on-ramp (slip) from East 47th Avenue to northbound Highway 99

▪ The on-ramp (loop) from West 47th Avenue to northbound Highway 99

What are the main detours?

Caltrans is asking many drivers who would normally use Highway 99 to instead consider a number of different routes depending on their normal route, but all of them involve at least some time on Interstate 5 to go to or from Sacramento.

Some of the detours also involve either direction of Highway 50, as well as Highway 104 and a number of surface streets and major thoroughfares such as Elk Grove Boulevard or Florin Road.

Transportation officials also advise against driving at all, if possible. Sacramento Regional Transit will provide free light rail service from June 12-15. To make use of this, riders must obtain a “free rider flyer” available online at sacrt.com/fixsac99.

How bad will traffic be?

The main issue is that the construction will last into morning and evening commute hours on two weekdays.

It’s difficult to predict exactly how congested traffic may get or to forecast the length of delays in hours or minutes. Some of that depends on how many commuters miss the message, are caught unaware and try to traverse Highway 99 anyway. Caltrans began putting up electronic signs warning about the closure more than two weeks in advance.

It’ll also depend on accidents. The worst-case scenario for congestion would be a major traffic incident, such as a crash closing multiple lanes, on I-5. Normally after a crash on I-5, Caltrans and local California Highway Patrol officials would recommend Highway 99 as the alternate route. With that completely closed, even more traffic would have to spill out onto surface streets.

CHP South Sacramento spokesman Officer Jim Young recently told The Bee that the local office has seen an uptick in congestion-related crashes, such as rear-endings. Highway officials say drivers may have sped more while the COVID-19 pandemic kept traffic lighter and are now having to readjust.

The good news in terms of timing is that there aren’t any large-scale weekend events planned that would exacerbate traffic nightmares Saturday or Sunday. The Kings’ season is over, Republic FC doesn’t have a match scheduled and concerts at Golden 1 Center remain on pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bad news in terms of timing is that the final full day of closure, June 15, coincides with the planned reopening of California’s economy, when most COVID-19 restrictions will be lifted.

In other words, Sacramento locals could celebrate the first day of restaurants, movie theaters and other establishments opening back up at full capacity by having to trudge through terrible gridlock to get to those places.

Worst closure ever?

The claim by DaPrato, the Caltrans spokesperson, that this may be the region’s most significant freeway closure ever is difficult to assess.

But, looking back at some of the biggest highway projects over the years, there really hasn’t been anything quite like the one planned later this week, at least not in the past decade.

The biggest closure in recent memory might be when Caltrans worked on the W-X stretch of the Capital City Freeway for nearly two months in 2014. That repair work saw all eastbound lanes closed 24 hours a day for about three weeks, then westbound lanes closed the following three weeks.

But for that project, Caltrans did keep some traffic flowing on the busy stretch of Highway 50, by switching eastbound traffic onto westbound lanes during the eastbound closure and vice versa, using temporary barriers to split up the five lanes, three-to-two.

This week’s project, on the other hand, will be a total closure of all Highway 99 lanes in the area. It’ll be shorter in duration than the 2014 chapter of the longer-term “Fix 50” project — four days compared to nearly two months. But it will also cover a stretch that is nearly double the length of the entire W-X.

From a duration standpoint, nothing in recent memory tops the $136 million “Across the Top” project on Interstate 80, which lasted from 2011 to 2016, widening and adding carpool lanes to a 10-mile stretch of Interstate 80 from the Yolo County line to Watt Avenue.

That project involved multiple lane and ramp closures over the course of half a decade, dragging on as the main contractor filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy midway through. A Sacramento Bee headline at the time declared it “Sacramento’s most annoying freeway project.”

Another big, ongoing annoyance is the “Fix 5” project, which plans to widen a 23-mile stretch of I-5, from one mile south of Elk Grove Boulevard up through the bridge over the American River, also adding carpool lanes in each direction. That $370 million project started in 2019 and is estimated to continue through December 2022.

Much of the Fix 5 project has been worked on at night, but late next week — just two days after the end of the Highway 99 closure — the freeway will be closed for 55 straight hours, from Friday, June 18, through Sunday, June 21, Caltrans says.

Is more construction coming soon in the Sacramento area?

Yes, plenty more freeway work is coming, including on Highway 99, in addition to the Fix 5 project.

The bridge deck replacement is just part of a $5.9 million project at 21st Avenue that Caltrans says is expected to be completed by this fall. Crews will also replace sound walls and the median, and install brighter lights for the underpass.

On the Capital City Freeway’s portion of Highway 50, a project to widen the W-X has already led to temporary narrowing and shifting of existing lanes, including awkward stretches of solid-white lane lines. One driver told The Bee last month that the road work from Caltrans has “created a video game-like nightmare that causes mass confusion.”

In a major, longer-term project, work has begun on what city and county officials are calling the Sacramento Capital SouthEast Connector Expressway — a quasi-freeway in east Sacramento County that will run from Folsom the east side of Rancho Cordova and down into Elk Grove.

The Bee’s Tony Bizjak contributed to this story.