Expect Interstate 5 Delays Over Labor Day Weekend For Emergency Fixes
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Traveling over the Labor Day weekend will come with some delays in Sacramento as a long emergency road closure is expected to last through Tuesday.
Repair work began again on Friday night on Northbound Interstate 5 near Richards Boulevard leaving lanes closed. The I Street onramp heading to Interstate 5 will also be closed. That's expected to shift traffic to Highway 50 and Interstate 80.
An emergency contract has been secured to make sure Caltrans can repair potholes along the busy stretch of Interstate 5 in Sacramento.
"This is not going to be a quick repair job. This is a construction project from here on out," said Caltrans spokesman Dennis Keaton. "It's an extremely urgent issue. We're talking about an interstate that carries roughly 200,000 cars daily in north and southbound directions of I-5."
With that urgency comes added expenses. Caltrans says the construction work is considered a rush job due to the short amount of preparation time, so everything from equipment to materials and labor will come at a higher cost.
"Anything over $319,000 has to go directly to headquarters for approval from the director's office," he said. "More than likely it's going to be more than $300,000.
Caltrans says this particular stretch of road was identified as a trouble spot more than a year ago and was already slated for repair later this fall. When we asked when this part of the Interstate was last worked on. Officials say they believe parts likely haven't been touched since the early 1980s while other parts were repaired as recently as 2010.
"We liken it to this is what happens when you keep using a band-aid instead of a surgery to fix an issue. It's eventually going to keep coming back," Keaton said.