New Sacramento Area Ramp Meters Scheduled for Activation

Published:

Date:        October 31, 2019   #19-298
District:   District 3 - Marysville,  https://dot.ca.gov/caltrans-near-me/district-3
Contact: Dennis Keaton, dennis.keaton@dot.ca.gov
Phone:    (530) 741-5474

SACRAMENTO COUNTY — To help relieve congestion and make merging safer for motorists, Caltrans will activate 14 new ramp meters on State Route 51, also known as Business 80 and southbound State Route 99.

These meters are tentatively scheduled to be activated on November 4, 2019.  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 October 25, 2019.

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

At the same time, the existing ramp meters on southbound State Route 99 from Bruceville Road and East Stockton Boulevard will have their hours of operation adjusted.

Additionally, the Arden Way on-ramp to northbound State Route 51 will be extended from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays.

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

The fourteen ramp meters affected are:

  • H, N and T Streets on-ramps to southbound State Route 51 (Business 80).
  • Broadway on-ramp to southbound State Route 99.
  • 14th Avenue on-ramp to southbound State Route 99.
  • Westbound and Eastbound Fruitridge Road to southbound State Route 99.
  • Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard to State Route southbound 99.
  • Westbound and Eastbound 47th Avenue to southbound State Route 99.
  • Westbound and Eastbound Florin Road to southbound State Route 99.
  • Westbound Calvine Road to southbound State Route 99.
  • Eastbound Cosumnes River Boulevard to southbound State Route 99.

Caltrans will operate anytime metering for freeway on-ramps for the second time in the greater Sacramento Valley region. The same method was used on southbound State Route 65 from Lincoln to Roseville earlier this month.

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