Capital Southeast Connector JPA outlines multi-decade expressway, 34-mile bike path and habitat mitigation plan

Derek Menema, executive director of the Capital Southeast Connector Joint Powers Authority (JPA), told the Sustainability and Environmental Commission that the long-running regional roadway project is designed as a four-lane expressway linking Interstate 5 with Highway 99, State Route 16 and Highway 50 and will include a continuous Class I bike path.

"The Joint Powers Authority is a collection of five agencies," Menema said, adding the JPA formed in February 2006 to advance the Capital Southeast Connector project. He described the project’s core corridors as Cameron (in Elk Grove), Grant Line Road (the backbone of the program) and White Rock Road (north toward Silva Valley Parkway), and said the full project is planned to include a 34-mile Class I bike path.

Why it matters: the project is a regional connector crossing multiple cities, counties and Congressional and supervisorial districts; Menema said it is intended to improve safety and freight mobility, and to shift some traffic off congested state highways. The corridor also is fully inside the South Sacramento Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP), and Menema said the JPA has secured a 50-year permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to proceed within that habitat-permit framework.

Project scope, costs and schedule Menema said roughly 11 miles are complete and open to traffic, representing about $200 million of construction work, and that nine additional miles are in final…