Construction work resumes on Tahoe Basin highways

The 2016 construction season in the Tahoe Basin will get under way next week with work resuming on a multi-year State Highway 89 project, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) announced today.

The $70.1 million water-quality improvement project is building new drainage facilities to collect and treat stormwater runoff, adding curbs and gutters, widening the highway and repaving an eight-mile section of Highway 89 between Tahoma and Tahoe City. Work this season will focus on the remaining four miles of the project between Eagle Rock and Granlibakken Road.

Caltrans has two other water-quality improvement projects on Highway 89 that will be in construction this year as part of the multi-agency Lake Tahoe Environmental Improvement Program (EIP). A $24.4 million project from the “Y” intersection with U.S. Highway 50 in South Lake Tahoe to Cascade Road, north of Camp Richardson, is in its second season of construction and will be completed this fall.

Picking up where that project ends, the final segment of Highway 89 to be rebuilt for drainage improvements will be from Cascade Road to just north of the Eagle Falls Viaduct over Emerald Bay. The $13 million project will take two seasons to construct.

In addition to the EIP projects, Highway 89 from Tahoe City to Alpine Meadows Road will be repaved this summer as part of ongoing preventive maintenance. Utility work on Highway 50 in South Lake Tahoe will continue this season between the “Y” and Trout Creek. The utility work is in advance of a Caltrans EIP project that will begin next season and run through 2019.

Other non-Caltrans projects on the state highway system this season include:

Kings Beach Commercial Core Improvement Project: Work on the “Core of the Core” phase of the project on State Highway 28 is wrapping up, with about two months of work this season, according to Placer County, the lead agency on the project. The second phase of the project, the “Gateway to the Core,” will get under way this spring, extending the pedestrian, bicycle, water quality and transit improvements to the limits of the project area.

SR 89/Fanny Bridge Community Revitalization Project: Work this season will focus on the new Highway 89 alignment out of Tahoe City and construction of two roundabouts at each end of the new alignment. The Tahoe Transportation District is the lead agency on the project. For more information, visit http://www.tahoetransportation.org/fanny-new-1.

The Nevada Department of Transportation has projects schedules for Highways 28 and 431 and U.S. Highway 50 this season. For more information on NDOT projects, visit http://nevadadot.com/.

Caltrans and NDOT will release their annual Tahoe Basin construction map later this month. For more information on Caltrans’ EIP projects, visit http://www.tahoeroads.com/ and for a week-ahead report on construction work, including times and locations, check http://www.tahoeroads.com/roadwork.

Since the EIP’s inception in 1997, Caltrans has programmed 17 water quality improvement projects in the Basin at a cost of more than $500 million to help protect and improve Lake Tahoe’s world famous water clarity for years to come. For more information on the EIP, please visit http://www.trpa.org/about-trpa/how-we-operate/environmental-improvement-program/.