With the current and anticipated winter storms, regional Sacramento transportation leaders are highlighting the need to improve area transportation corridors to serve as key evacuation routes during flood and other emergencies.
One of those corridors is the SouthEast Connector Expressway, the 34-mile transportation corridor that connects I-5 and Highway 99 in Elk Grove to Highway 50 in El Dorado Hills. Authorized in 2004 by Sacramento County voters, about 6.5 miles of the Connector have been improved primarily along Kammerer Road in Elk Grove and White Rock Road in Folsom.
The largest stretch of the Connector is along Grant Line Road through south Sacramento County, a mostly two-lane country road, limiting emergency access and its value as a route to higher ground when flooding threatens southern Sacramento County, and for El Dorado County residents to flee wildfires to the east.
Parts of Grant Line Road in January 2023 were closed due to flooding from the nearby Cosumnes River, which at that time reached its highest level in history and flooded Wilton and parts of south Sacramento County. The area has experienced several other flood incidents in recent decades.
“Recent flood events in south Sacramento County have demonstrated the need for improved transportation corridors in that area, including Grant Line Road, that are able to remain open even when threatened by high water,” said Derek Minnema, executive director of the Capital SouthEast Connector Joint Powers Authority, which is responsible for the project’s implementation. “The Connector’s design helps ensure that emergency responders and evacuees are able to use it when needed.”
The 19-mile Grant Line Road segment is the Connector’s longest and is being implemented in partnership with Sacramento County, Elk Grove, and Rancho Cordova. Planning and environmental review is either complete or underway for portions of the alignment, but anticipated construction funding has not materialized as expected due to a shift in transportation funding priorities that favor transit and bikeways.
“The need to improve the longest portion of the Connector route along Grant Line has been clearly demonstrated but securing the additional local, state and federal funding that we need to move into construction has been a challenge,” said Minnema, who is leading efforts to raise the project’s visibility and make it a higher funding priority. “We’re trying to educate more area residents about our plans and help local, state and federal officials better understand why this project needs to move forward sooner rather than later.”
The Connector JPA currently has several active funding requests under consideration by the Rancho Cordova and Sacramento County, and expects budget decisions in the next several months.