Yuba County receives largest federal grant ever to extend Highway 70 and alleviate traffic
YUBA COUNTY – The biggest federal grant Yuba County has ever received will cover most of a project to extend Highway 70, alleviating heavy neighborhood traffic through Plumas Lake Boulevard.
Between the Toyota Amphitheatre and the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, the nearby roads are getting overwhelmed with traffic.
"It sometimes gets so crowded guests have actually left their cars in the road and ran over to our smoke shop to get their products and were able to get back in their car before the traffic moved," said Beatriz Romo, who works nearby.
It's been a project long in the making, but Yuba County has finally secured the biggest federal grant they've ever received, $35 million, to extend Highway 70 and connect it to the sports and entertainment zone known as the area where the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino stands.
This is an area overwhelmed with traffic during events.
"It's worse when there are shows at both places. It's horrible, super packed," said Yveth Martinez, who works nearby.
"This interchange will take care of that. It will alleviate that bottleneck allowing people to safely access SR70 both northbound and southbound," said former Yuba County Public Works Director Daniel Peterson. Peterson also wrote the grant application for the federal transportation money.
The rural roads, like Algodon Road, were not built or designed to accommodate the thousands of cars it can see in a day.
"Maintenance and operational costs are definitely going to go down. The overpass of course is built to handle truck traffic, higher volumes of traffic," Peterson said.
"It's very needed for a couple of reasons. One is safety. It's going to remove a railroad crossing, an active railroad crossing and two is for recent and future development that's going to be happening," said Yuba County District 4 Supervisor Gary Bradford.
County officials say this project may serve as a catalyst to incentivize more development in the area because of the new easy access. Construction is set to begin in early 2026 and will take about two years to complete.
"It's going to dramatically improve not only the transportation aspect for our residents but also safety, public health and impacts on our first responders," Peterson said.
The extended highway will also serve as an evacuation route during wildfires or floods, and safer infrastructure will be put in place for more than just cars.
"That road is not safe for pedestrians or bicyclists particularly at night when it's dark and there is a lot of traffic. This will at least take a portion of that and make it more pedestrian and bike-friendly," Bradford said.
This project will also allow for a light rail station to be built at Plumas Lake Boulevard and Algodon Road for the future proposed train line from Natomas up to Chico that is planned to run parallel to Highway 70.
