18 months of ramp work is underway at Ashlan and 41. Drivers can't miss the massive chunk of earth CalTrans started digging out in June. This northbound on-ramp and two others at Shaw and Bullard are part of a $5.5M project to expand out three lanes and ease bottlenecking.
"We anticipate there is not going to be any headaches. We're hoping this is going to be a smooth transition," said Gloria Rodriguez with Caltrans. She added that no two consecutive ramps will be closed at the same time.
Drivers we spoke to welcome the construction.
Fresno's Ricky Perez said: "Getting on to the freeways is congested a little bit, little time consuming."
"Expanding lanes will lessen the traffic and make people happy," said Sandra Deazebedo from Tulare.
Each ramp will be metered to pace traffic and have a carpool lane similar to this one here at Jensen and 41. The second ramp project taking place on HWY 41 targets people headed south from McKinley and Shields. The project started in April but stalled. CalTrans said construction plans had to be redrawn. Federal stimulus funds are paying for this $4M lane expansion.
Anyone who has exited 41 North at Herndon knows the frustration and worry.
Perez: "Traffic really slows down on the freeway which is very dangerous. My concern is that it's really dangerous."
Deazebedo: "I mainly exit Friant. I never really get off of on Herndon. And Friant, yeah, there's more lanes there."
Caltrans said by next summer commuters will have an additional lane stretching all the way from Bullard to Herndon to allow cars to exit. Construction starts after the 4th of July.
