By Barry Eberling | Daily Republic | December 01, 2008
The new 1.2-mile truck-climbing lane on Highway 12 between Fairfield and Napa is scheduled to open on Thursday. Photo by Brad Zweerink
FAIRFIELD - Better days should be ahead for morning commuters from Fairfield to Napa, beginning Thursday.
That's when the state Department of Transportation plans to open a 1.2-mile truck-climbing lane on Highway 12. The project should give cars a way to get around slow-moving trucks struggling along the hills of Jameson Canyon.
Cars will pass the trucks in the extra lane. After the trucks have gained speed, they will merge back with the rest of the traffic. Rush-hour congestion that backs up past the Highway 12 on-ramp and onto westbound Interstate 80 will be eased.
At least that's the goal.
'It's going to make a significant difference,' said Dan McElhinney, chief deputy director for Caltrans District 4.
McElhinney and other Caltrans and Solano Transportation Authority officials held a press conference Monday afternoon alongside the new truck-climbing lane.
Caltrans and the STA has still bigger plans for the area. Work to turn Highway 12 into a four-lane expressway through all of Jameson Canyon should begin in 2010. At some point, the interchange of interstates 80 and 680 is to be renovated.
But the truck-climbing lane could be completed far sooner than those two mammoth undertakings. It could offer some immediate -- if only partial -- traffic relief to an area that is perhaps Solano County's most notorious bottleneck.
'It's a nice bridge between the two projects,' STA Executive Director Daryl Halls said.
See the complete story at the Daily Repulbic online.
