An article in the SacBee today updates status on the Fix50 project to date (Sacramento Highway 50 project delayed again. When will Fix50 construction end?, SacBee, 2026-09-16, Madison Smalstig). Caltrans says the project will be ‘substantially completed’ by the end of October. October of what year? I worked for the federal government and government contractors for years early in my career, and know that the term ‘essentially complete’ is governmental-ese for ‘we are so far behind we don’t even really know when we’ll be done’.
$100M over budget, so far, and a year behind schedule, so far. But none of this really matters to Caltrans, which has its hands deep in your taxpayer pocket, and never suffers consequence for mis-managing projects. Caltrans is bad, Caltrans District 3, which includes Sacramento County, is worse. D3 is well known for its cars-first policies and projects.
And what will the project do, when it is someday complete? It will induce additional travel on Hwy 50, and on all roadways leading to and from Hwy 50, by encouraging commuters to travel longer distances and take more frequent trips. Poorer air quality, and anger-inducing congestion, guaranteed. Yet another make-work project for Caltrans engineers and construction companies. Most importantly, money spent to subsidize private motor vehicle drivers instead of meeting the multi-modal needs of citizens. Money tossed in the trash, or in this case, in the highway.
The Fix50 project is adding HOV lanes. It is well known that HOV lanes are ineffective at encouraging carpooling because they are routinely violated by many drivers, meaning the HOV lanes are just as congested, and therefore ineffective, as every other lane. This is a highway capacity expansion project, nothing more. Tolled express lanes induce some traffic, but far less than HOV lanes.
