LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Late last week, the California Transportation Commission allocated $101 million in funding to 90 projects to improve transportation statewide, including a $13 million project for Lake County that is the largest by dollar amount of any in the state.

“From one end of the state to the other, transportation projects are providing jobs and improving mobility for people and businesses in California,” said Caltrans Director Cindy McKim in a statement released following the meeting.

The most expensive single project approved statewide in this recent round of funding approvals is the $13,321,000 that will be used to improve areas of Highways 175 and 29 in Lake County, according to the commission's list of approved projects.

The project will run from 4.9 miles east of the Lake/Mendocino County line to the junction of Highway 175 and 29 near Lakeport, and near Kelseyville from the Highway 175/29 junction to the area in Middletown where the two highways also meet.

Approximately 46.2 lane miles of roadway will be improved by overlaying it with concrete asphalt to improve ride quality and prevent further deterioration of the traveling surface, which is meant to minimize costly repairs and extend the pavement's surface life, according to commission documents.

Caltrans spokesman Phil Frisbie said some of the improvements in southern Lake County will include paving over the area of a large aggregate chip seal project completed last year.

The firm International Surfacing Systems received a total of $2.1 million to complete chip seal projects along 12 miles of Highway 29 from the Lake/Napa County lines to the Coyote Creek Bridge and 8.5 miles on Highway 175 from Cobb to Middletown, as Lake County News has reported.

That project angered south county residents, who said it damaged their vehicles and caused safety hazards. Caltrans met with residents in a heated meeting last October, with Caltrans District 1 Director Charlie Fielder pledging to have the area resurfaced.

Fielder said at the time that Caltrans had found the funds for the project – which later was reported to have come from savings on other projects – but just needed the California Transportation Commission's final approval, which was granted at the March 24 commission meeting.

Frisbie said the project, which is new, will go out to bid.

Lake County also received $125,000 to go toward a cultural interpretive center project located near the intersection of Highway 20 and Reclamation Road near Nice, according to the project list.

That's the site of a historical monument denoting the May 1850 massacre at Bloody Island which, due to reclamation is now a hill located one-quarter of a mile west of the marker.

In the incident, local Pomo Indians were attacked by U.S. Soldiers in retribution for the murders of Andrew Kelsey and Charles Stone on the other side of the lake in Kelseyville.

Frisbie said that, currently, the location is surrounded by some gravel so people can park and read the monument.

The project to improve the area, which Frisbie said is being funded by a transportation enhancement grant, will include paved parking, landscaping with native plants and an interpretive sign to provide additional background on the Bloody Island Massacre.

Northern California overall received a good portion of funds for its highway projects, with three of the top five projects located there.

In addition to Lake County, the top five included $10,440,000 for the city of Sacramento's complete structural retrofit, life-safety and accessibility improvements for the Sacramento Valley Station in downtown Sacramento; $10,366,000 for work on Highway 299 near Redding and east of the Trinity County line for increasing curve radii and widening paved shoulders to reduce the number and severity of collision and improve safety; $9,572,000 in Orange County for construction in Santa Ana of an auxiliary lane between interchanges to address the weaving operations of vehicles and increase the level of service; and $8 million to install predictive collision avoidance technology along the Los Angeles-to-San Diego rail corridor, which extends from San Onofre to San Diego.

Mendocino County also will benefit from a sizable $4,273,000 project for rehabilitating 21 miles of roadway with an asphalt concrete overlay from Hopland at the junction of Highway 101 to 0.6 mile east of the Mendocino County line, according to the final approved project list.

Other projects approved around the region include $5 million in Shasta County for installation of truck climbing lanes on Highway 299 near Redding and east of the Trinity County line; $1,116,000 for work on Highway 101 and Highway 169 in Del Norte and Humboldt counties that will include rehabilitating four bridges by replacing joint seals to provide a smoother ride and applying a treatment to seal the decks, and $600,000 for similar bridge repairs in Yolo and Sacramento counties.

To see the full project list visit www.dot.ca.gov/docs/ctcprojectallocationsmarch2011.pdf .

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