Shops OPEN for business during construction

Work began Monday on a section of Taylor Road in Loomis that will be resurfaced, sidewalks added and the bike trail extended.

It’s phase three of the Downtown Master Plan, according to Loomis Public Works director Britton Snipes.

One area of sidewalk will go in on the west side of Taylor Road from Horseshoe Bar Road to Webb Street and a second area from King Road to near the Blue Goose Event Center at 3550 Taylor Road.

The bike trail will be extended from north of Del Oro High School (at 3301 Taylor Road) to Lemos Ranch Drive. The bike trail runs parallel to Taylor, separated from the road by a ditch.

“We’re pretty excited,” Snipes said. “It will be really nice to fix that piece of road. … It’s really exciting to have the sidewalk so people can walk from Webb Street and the multi-modal parking lot. It will be safer. When it is safer, people want to walk more and we will be providing that for them.”

Traffic controls will be in place from Horseshoe Bar to Lemos Ranch Drive with possible periods of lane shifts throughout the construction period.

“But there will always be lanes open in each direction so police and fire can always respond,” Snipes said. “It will be inconvenient but the roads won’t be closed. We will have slower traffic but don’t anticipate long delays.”

He estimates the work will take three months.

The contractor for the $1,789,000 project is Western Engineering and Asphalt in Loomis.

Funding for the improvements comes from RSTP (Regional Surface Transportation Program —gas tax), a federal CMAQ (Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality) grant and state money from SB1 RMRA (Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Account).

The work moves forward the vision for the town center as created in the master plan completed in 2010.

“The master plan is what we wanted Taylor Road to look like in our downtown, from Circle Drive to King Road and a spur that goes down Horseshoe Bar from Taylor Road to the (Interstate 80) freeway,” Snipes said. “In the master plan, we decided what we wanted sidewalks, bike lanes and traffic lanes to look like in the downtown core. There will be five or six phases.”

Snipes expects only light impact to businesses along the stretch of road under improvement.

“We’ll always leave them an entrance and an exit,” he said. “Businesses will remain open and active with some minor inconvenience of pulling up to them.”

The first phase of construction, in 2017, added landscaping and lighting as well as new curb gutter sidewalks and a bike lane on Taylor Road from Horseshoe Bar to near High Hand Nursery (3750 Taylor Road), funded by a $1.44-million federal grant.

“It was a three-month project as well,” Snipes said.

The new phase’s launch is exciting news, Loomis Basin Chamber of Commerce executive director Jenny Knisley said.

“The next phase of the Taylor Road improvement project for the town of Loomis will continue to support our local businesses, and will encourage safer pedestrian and bicycle travel,” she said. “The Loomis Basin Chamber of Commerce and the town of Loomis will use the previously-created ‘IDigLoomis’ marketing campaign to advise the business community, as well as the community at large, about the project.”