Caltrans funds highways 99/113 interchange in Sutter County

A full interchange is in the works for highways 99 and 113 south of Yuba City, after Caltrans announced $17.8 million for the project Thursday.

With full on- and off-ramps rather than the stoplight, the interchange is the last piece of improving Highway 99 for safety in south Sutter County, said Supervisor James Gallagher.

"It definitely brightened my day to hear that," said Gallagher, who represents that portion of the county.

According to Caltrans, bids for the project will be accepted this year, with construction scheduled to start next spring and be finished by fall 2014.

The total project price tag is $19.4 million, with the funding out of Proposition 1B, a statewide transportation project bond approved by voters two years ago. Other sources, including local monies, make up the balance, said Caltrans spokesman Gilbert Mohtes-Chan.

"This will really help in terms of increased safety, and that's the major thing," Mohtes-Chan said, adding the interchange might also lessen traffic on nearby George Washington Boulevard, where drivers sometimes go to avoid the 99/113 stoplight.

Word of the interchange comes less than two years after Caltrans completed a $54.9-million bypass project on Highway 99 in that area that included the stoplight.

Though it might have been better to do the interchange at the same time as the bypass, Mohtes-Chan and Gallagher said such timing is a function of how funding often works out for transportation projects.

Gallagher said a few years ago, Caltrans didn't even have a potential interchange on their radar until Supervisor Larry Montna, who represents the county on the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, pushed for it.

The two-highway interchange will be the third on Highway 99 in upcoming years, with ones at Highway 99 and Riego Road and Highway 99 and Elverta Road both scheduled to begin construction this summer.