By Ben Antonius | Daily Republic | June 19, 2008 16:00
Caltrans Director Will Kempton speaks as I-80 traffic speeds by in the background during a ground breaking ceremony Thursday in Fairfield. Kempton was in town for the beginning of the project on I-80 that will add approximately eight miles of high occupancy vehicle lanes in both directions and widen the median on from approximately Red Top Road to Airbase Parkway. Photo by Chris Jordan
FAIRFIELD - With a few shovelfuls of dirt, a project to install car pool lanes on Interstate 80 got under way Thursday.
Government officials got together in a Green Valley parking lot adjacent to the freeway to praise the work that brought the $53.2 million construction project to reality.
'Anyone who has driven on that stretch of roadway through the City of Fairfield knows how badly we need to upgrade,' said Will Kempton, director of the California Department of Transportation.
The high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) lanes are the centerpiece of the project and will stretch from Red Top Road to the Putah South Canal between Air Base Parkway and North Texas Street.
The project will also involve significant work on medians and road surfaces across the county, Caltrans said. Pavement will be resurfaced and medians installed between Tennessee Street in Vallejo and Highway 113 in Dixon, a distance of about 35 miles. Construction is scheduled to be completed in fall 2009.
The event drew both local and state officials, including Fairfield Mayor Harry Price, who was clad in a Jelly Belly tie. Price said the HOV lanes will make the area 'a sweeter place.'
A representative for Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, read a statement saying Miller 'looks forward to the day' that the HOV lanes in Fairfield are connected to those at the Carquinez Bridge and extended to Interstate 505 in Vacaville.
See the complete story at the Daily Repbulic Online.
