Highway 50 and Sierra Boulevard projects heading into final weeks

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - With summer over and the October 15 deadline for grading projects in the Lake Tahoe Basin, contractors are working to wrap up work on Sierra Boulevard and Highway 50.

On Sierra Boulevard, the City of South Lake Tahoe's $5.5M Complete Streets project will bring sidewalks, Class 1 and Class 2 bike lanes, parallel parking spots, reduced lane size, lighted sidewalks, underground utilities, landscaping, crosswalks and new water quality improvements to a .6 mile stretch.

The underground work is done so crews are now working on the layers of new street and new sidewalks. They may have to dip into the October 15 deadline but most work will be done by then. After October 15 they will add landscaping and lighting.

The third and final year of the Caltrans $57M Y to Trout Creek road project on Highway 50 may also have to ask for an extension from the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) on their October 15 grading deadline. They too expect to be done this year but there is a chance they'll come back in 2020 for some minor fixes if needed.

Starting this week, work on the final segment to Trout Creek Bridge will have the most impact drivers have seen this year. Construction will reduce traffic to one lane in each direction with grinding at night, paving during the day.

The impact continues further down the road as they will also finish paving at the Y, something they had to skip three years ago due to post Labor Day constraints. The contractor will also have to repave Highway 50 from Winnemucca to Sierra Boulevard, the second segment of the project, due to pavement that didn’t pass inspection last year.

Caltrans contractors are on schedule and they should be done with all traffic interfering work by mid-October. All six traffic lights from the Y to Al Tahoe will be synchronized so stopping will be eliminated when traveling the speed limit through these lights.

The roundabout in Meyers is 99 percent finished. Caltrans couldn’t open the bypass lane due to some concrete issues and they have to come back this week with three more nights of work. There shouldn’t be any traffic interfering work after this week.

As announced today, Caltrans said their Echo Summit project will most likely need full closure of Highway 50 in mid-October.

Caltrans will be holding a public meeting on that project at the California Conservation Corps building on Thursday, Sept 5 from 5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. They are located at 1949 Apache Ave., Meyers.