MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Caltrans will host a community open house this week on a proposed safety project for a portion of Highway 175.
The public open house will take place from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 1, in the multipurpose room at Middletown High School, 20932 Big Canyon Road.
The drop-in style open house will have displays describing the project, and Caltrans staff will be on hand to answer questions.
The $12.5 million project is slated to take place along a 2.5-mile section of Highway 175 from Putah Creek to Dry Creek, Caltrans reported.
Caltrans said proposed highway upgrades include widening shoulders by 4 to 6 feet, adding rumble strips, removing objects near the roadway – including moving utility poles and removing some trees – and improving sight distance.
In early November, the Middletown Area Town Hall hosted a presentation on the project by Jaime Matteoli, Caltrans' Lake County projects manager, as Lake County News has reported.
Matteoli said Caltrans is pursuing the project due to a fatal collision rate in that area that's five times the state average, and that the goal is to reduce both the number – and severity – of crashes in that stretch of highway.
The project's final environmental documents are scheduled to be approved on Dec. 15, with Caltrans to begin right-of-way acquisitions along the project area the same day, Matteoli reported.
Matteoli said project design is scheduled to be done by March 1, 2018, and construction could begin later that summer.
Building the project will take two construction seasons, so early estimates place the completion in the winter of 2019, he said.
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Caltrans plans Dec. 1 open house on Highway 175 safety improvements
- Elizabeth Larson
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