District: District 3 - Marysville
Contact: Dennis Keaton
Phone: (530) 741-5474
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SACRAMENTO COUNTY— To help relieve congestion and make merging safer for motorists, Caltrans will change the times for 17 existing ramp meters on Interstate 5 (I-5).
These meters are tentatively scheduled to be changed on December 7, 2020. 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 November 30, 2020.
The 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 following seventeen ramp meters on north- and southbound I-5 will be updated with traffic demand mode:
• NB CR 102 to SB I-5
• WB Del Paso Road to SB I-5
• EB Del Paso Road to SB I-5
• WB Arena Boulevard to SB I-5
• EB Arena Boulevard to SB I-5
• WB Arena Boulevard to NB I-5
• EB Arena Boulevard to NB I-5
• WB W El Camino Ave SB I-5 (loop ramp)
• EB W El Camino Ave SB I-5 (slip ramp)
• Garden Hwy to SB I-5
• WB Garden Hwy to NB I-5
• Richards Boulevard to NB I-5
• Richards Boulevard to SB I-5
• I Street to NB I-5
• L Street to NB I-5
• P Street to NB I-5
• P Street to SB I-5
Caltrans will operate anytime metering for freeway on-ramps for the fifth time in the greater Sacramento Valley region. The same method was used in 2018 on southbound State Route 65 from Lincoln to Roseville and State Route 51 and 99 in 2019 and earlier this year on Interstate 80 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 or download the QuickMap app on iTunes or Google Play.