LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – As part of its planning process, the Lake County Public Works Department is laying the groundwork for a number of major road projects around the county this year and next.
The county's maintained road network has 615 total miles, of which 490 miles are paved and 125 miles are unpaved.
Based on a summary of projects compiled by Public Works – a previous version of which was presented to the Board of Supervisors in February – road projects completed in 2014 had a dollar value of $1,771,000, while planned projects for 2015 and 2016 are estimated to total $5,264,000 and $6,010,000, respectively.
“These are construction dollars for projects that are going to be under construction in that year,” Lars Ewing, deputy director of Lake County Public Works, told Lake County News regarding the different dollar amounts.
He said those amounts also aren't connected to what the county is spending on phases of other projects – specifically, phases like design, environmental studies and planning.
“These are construction-specific dollars,” he emphasized.
Ewing said the difference between the number of projects and the dollar amounts between 2014 and 2015 primarily comes down to grants.
For instance, the highway bridge program is giving the county $3.7 million in 2015 – compared to $1.3 million in 2014 – due to planned bridge projects, he said.
That grant also will give the county $2.5 million in 2016, plus there will be a $338,000 Safe Routes to School sidewalk project in Clearlake Oaks that year, he said.
The bridge program is federal, Ewing said, with 88 percent coming from federal resources and 12 percent that typically has to be paid by the county.
“For these projects, the state is actually kicking in that local portion for various reasons,” Ewing said.
Another of the sources of funding for local roads is Public Works' state gas tax revenue reserves, which are used for road maintenance and reconstruction, Ewing said.
The reserves are drawn on in various amounts depending on other available funding, he explained.
In 2014, the agency used $63,000 of the reserves for projects like chip sealing. Ewing said Public Works was able to augment those funds with $263,000 in State Transportation Improvement Funds.
In 2015 and 2016, Public Works is estimating it will draw far more out of reserves – $650,000 and $959,000, respectively, he said.
He said those numbers may change as gas tax fluctuates. He said the county anticipates getting quite a bit less than it originally planned for in the next fiscal year.
Ewing said the gas tax revenues are declining due to a combination of gas prices dropping and more fuel-efficient vehicles.
Public Works completed six major road projects in 2014: Butts Canyon Road chip seal and Hilderbrand Drive bridge over St. Helena Creek in Middletown; work on Emerson Drive, Fox Drive, Regina Way and Venturi Drive in the Cobb area; the Soda Bay Road slide repair; and culvert work on Victoria Street in Lucerne.
Looking forward to 2015, Public Works has 13 projects on the drawing board, according to the summary.
Those projects are a slide repair on Bartlett Springs Road above Lucerne; bridges on Ackley, Hendricks, Highland Springs, Scotts Valley, Seigler Canyon and Soda Bay roads; the Konocti Road sidewalks project in Kelseyville; Socrates Mine Road repairs; chip seal, signage and striping on Soda Bay Road; chip seal on a portion of Morgan Valley Road and Main Street in Lower Lake; and signage and striping on Butts Canyon Road near Middletown.
Ewing said those projects are expected to be constructed, although they are not firm and could change.
So far, among the 2015 projects, the Cole Creek Bridge on Soda Bay Road and the signage and striping on Soda Bay and Butts Canyon roads have gone out to bid and been awarded to contractors by Public Works, Ewing said.
In the case of one project – a slide repair on Bartlett Springs Road resulting from the early December storm that hit the county – Ewing noted, “It’s under the 2015 plan but that’s work that was already done.”
On Konocti Road in Kelseyville, a state Safe Routes to School project will build sidewalks at a cost of $345,000 to help children safely travel to the nearby elementary school. Ewing said Public Works is pursuing a transportation grant to fund repairs or reconstruction of an existing portion of sidewalk in the area.
As for 2016 plans, the projects list is more of a forecast, Ewing said.
Those projects include bridges on Bridge Arbor, Harbin Springs and Matthews roads; work on Bottle Rock Road between Kelseyville and Cobb; repairs on Lakeshore Boulevard and Rainbow Road in Lakeport; and the federal Safe Routes to School sidewalk project in Clearlake Oaks.
Editor's note: The projects listed here are separate from road and repair projects expected to be funded thanks to a state grant resulting from the December storm damage. Those repair projects will be explained in an upcoming article.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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