First Sacramento Ramp Connector Meters Scheduled for Activation

Published:

Interstate 5

District:  District 3 - Marysville
Contact: Dennis Keaton
Phone: (916) 825-5252

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sacramento County — To help relieve congestion and make merging safer for motorists, Caltrans will activate four new ramp meters on State Highway 99 (Hwy 99) and Interstate 5 (I-5).

These meters are tentatively scheduled to be activated on September 25, 2023. The metering hours will be based on traffic demand and will activate anytime when minimum traffic thresholds are met. The ramp meters will be active every day including weekends and holidays. To help alert the public of the changes, the meters were set to rest in green on September 11, 2023.

These meters will have expanded hours of operation, which will allow these signals to also manage non-commute congestion with on demand metering.

Traffic metering will take place anytime during the daytime or nighttime hours when there is heavy traffic congestion on the freeway.

The four ramp meters on north- and southbound Hwy 99 and I-5 will be updated with traffic demand mode:

  • Southbound Interstate 5 to Northbound State Route 99 freeway to freeway connector
  • Southbound State Route 99 to Northbound Interstate 5 freeway to freeway connector
  • Metro Air Parkway to Northbound Interstate 5
  • Metro Air Parkway to Southbound Interstate 5

Caltrans will operate anytime metering for freeway on-ramps 24/7 in the greater Sacramento Valley region. The same method was used in 2018 on southbound State Route 65 from Lincoln to Roseville and on State Route 51 and 99 in 2019 and prior locations this year on State Highway 99 for Sacramento County.

Studies have found ramp meters are an effective way to reduce freeway congestion and collisions, improve travel time and make merging onto the freeway safer.

Caltrans District 3 is responsible for maintaining and operating 4,385 lane miles in 11 Sacramento Valley and Northern Sierra counties. Caltrans issues updates about road conditions on Twitter @CaltransDist3 and on Facebook at CaltransDistrict3. For real-time traffic, click on Caltrans’ QuickMap quickmap.dot.ca.gov/ or download the QuickMap app from the App Store or Google Play

map of a light pole ramp

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