Grand Opening Ceremony December 16 for the Douglas/I-80 Improvement Project. Click here for more information.
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Aerials taken 8/5/05
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Web Camera (I-80 Construction) - High Speed Internet
Web Camera (I-80 Construction) - Low Speed Internet

Douglas/I-80 construction photos (August 2004)

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City of Roseville Press Release from February 17th, 2004

Detailed Description of the Douglas/I-80 Project
"A Brighter Sunrise For Douglas" coming with $35 million Interstate 80 Improvement Project

A new era for the busiest intersection in Roseville began February 17 as state, regional and local officials joined with more than 120 community representatives, business leaders and others to celebrate the start of the largest roadway improvement project in Roseville’s history—the $35 million Douglas/I-80 Interchange Improvement Project.

The project includes Roseville’s first vehicle tunnel onramp, an 800-foot-long tunnel to be located about 20 feet underground that will provide motorists on northbound Sunrise Avenue with direct access to eastbound Interstate 80 (I-80) without going through the busy Sunrise-Douglas intersection.

“This project is a huge benefit to all Roseville residents and motorists and it helps the City to achieve its goal of making Roseville’s roadways safer and easier to use,” Roseville Mayor F.C. “Rocky” Rockholm said. “We’re grateful to our state and federal leaders for helping us with this project, and we want to also thank our project partners, Caltrans and the Placer County Transportation Planning Agency.”

Rockholm noted that the ceremony’s theme, “A Brighter Sunrise for Douglas” is an appropriate way to describe this new era for the intersection of Sunrise Avenue and Douglas Boulevard, the busiest intersection in Roseville which is used by more than 90,000 cars per day.

“We’re here today to celebrate the project’s beginning and we’re looking forward to the day when the sun rises on a completed project that provides motorists with a safer, more efficient freeway interchange that works in concert with an improved Sunrise-Douglas intersection,” Rockholm said.

Other officials attending the celebration on Feb. 17 with Mayor Rockholm were state Assemblyman Tim Leslie, Placer County Supervisors Ted Gaines and Bill Santucci, Mayor Pro Tem Gina Garbolino and City Councilmembers John Allard, Jim Gray and Richard Roccucci. Also speaking at the event were Jody Lonergan, Caltrans District 3 Director and Celia McAdam, Executive Director for the Placer County Transportation Planning Agency.

Caltrans’ Lonergan told people at the ceremony that the project “will have a dramatic impact on how traffic moves through the area.” Lonergan said Caltrans will do everything it can to minimize impacts to motorists during the construction phase, including doing work at night and in the early morning hours when traffic volumes are lower.

In December, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) selected R.L. Brosamer, Inc. of Alamo, California as the lead contractor for project. The contractor has already begun staging equipment and supplies at the project site. Work is expected to get under way this spring and will take up to 18 months to complete. Caltrans is responsible for overall project management.

The project will upgrade the existing Douglas Boulevard interchange with Interstate 80 and significantly improve vehicle circulation at the Sunrise Avenue-Douglas Boulevard intersection, city and state officials said.

A new, single-lane bridge over Interstate 80, known as a “flyover,” will connect motorists on eastbound Douglas Boulevard to southbound Sunrise Avenue. The flyover, together with the tunnel, will help remove about 16,000 cars per day out of the busy Sunrise-Douglas intersection, nearly a 20 percent decrease in traffic volume, City officials said.

The existing on-ramp from westbound Douglas Boulevard to westbound Interstate 80 also will be widened to two lanes.

“The tunnel is an exciting concept that enhances our circulation patterns for the area because it eliminates the need for thousands of motorists to use the Sunrise-Douglas intersection to access eastbound I-80,” said Rob Jensen, Director of the City’s Public Works Department.

“This is not a cookie-cutter project, but one that has been specifically designed and engineered to tailor fit the needs and goals of the Douglas/I-80 interchange,” Jensen said.

More than 60,000 cubic yards of dirt will be dug out of the ground to build the tunnel, part of an overall 200,000 cubic yards of dirt and material that will be excavated from the project site.

On Feb. 17, the first few pounds of dirt were removed by state and local officials during the groundbreaking ceremony which occurred at the entrance to where the tunnel begins on northbound Sunrise Avenue near Oak Ridge Drive.

Total costs for the project are approximately $35 million, including environmental documentation, design, property acquisition, construction and project management costs. About $24 million of the cost is funded from development-paid traffic impact mitigation fees while nearly $11 million comes from federal and state highway monies.

“This has been a unique project that many people have worked on for a long time,” said Roseville City Manager W. Craig Robinson. “We’re anxious to see the project built so that it can help further improve vehicle circulation in Roseville.”

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