Revamped road into Beale named after Yeager

Renowned pilot Chuck Yeager said he expects his trips on a stretch of Yuba County road near Beale Air Force Base to be a whole lot smoother than some others he's been on.

At a dedication ceremony Monday for renaming 5 miles of what was Smartville Road for him, the famed fighter and test aviator said the changes as the result of a $3.6 million project are dramatic.

"I drove it this morning and it's really a fabulous road now," said Yeager, a Grass Valley resident famous for being the first to break the speed of sound, in 1947. "To put it bluntly, it was terrible before."

About 70 people attended the dedication ceremony, many of them current Beale airmen. Base commander Brigadier General Paul McGillicuddy said the improvements are welcome to curb an average of more than three accidents annually on the road, which links to the base's eastern gate.

"They did more than just repave it," he said. "They flattened it out and straightened it."

McGillicuddy said 100 to 150 airmen use the road daily. But getting the improvements didn't happen overnight, he and other speakers at the ceremony pointed out.

The push for repaving all 6.5 miles of Smartville Road began in 2002, as part of a campaign to improve all the main arteries into the base, including North Beale and Hammonton-Smartsville roads.

A combined effort from the base, county officials, Caltrans, and other state and federal agencies, as well as the office of U.S. Rep Wally Herger, R-Chico, made the difference, McGillicuddy and others said. Getting Smartville Road done, and renaming it for Yeager, was the last step.

"It was the right thing to do," said Yuba County Supervisor John Nicoletti, whose father's name is on a road within the base. County Public Works Director Mike Lee said the bulk of the funding for the work came from federal funds, with a $550,000 to $600,000 local share of gas taxes and Proposition 1B funds.

Yeager, 87, said while he was honored for the naming, he felt the real honor went to those airmen who will drive on it.

Recalling he'd been affiliated with Beale since 1943 — when it was a U.S. Army, not Air Force, operation — the retired Air Force general said the road had been in deplorable shape much of those 63 years.

"They've suffered long enough," he said. "It makes you feel good when you see what young people are doing in the Air Force today."

Nicoletti pointed out, in humorous fashion, another upside to improving the road. When discussions first began about improving roads around Beale, he said, Yeager would bring with him a bag of tomatoes he grew in Grass Valley to meetings at the base.

"By the time he got here, it was salsa," Nicoletti said, to laughter.

CONTACT Ben van der Meer at 749-4709 or bvandermeer@appealdemocrat.com .