October has been a busy month for the Connector team. The consultant team is working toward initiating the scoping process beginning early next year. In the meantime, we are out in the community sharing information about the project and the process. Two of those information-sharing sessions were held earlier this month: a community meeting in the Sheldon/Wilton area and an informational project presentation at a special meeting of the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors.

The Sheldon/Wilton community meeting was held October 6 at C. W. Dillard Elementary School. We had a fantastic turnout, with more than 80 people in attendance. We were also honored to have Elk Grove Mayor Pat Hume and Sacramento County Supervisor Don Nottoli in attendance, as they are the Connector Board members representing the area.

Read More

The Connector will result in a change in the way some people access roadways near their homes and businesses. That is an obvious statement, but it should be acknowledged.

It’s no secret that there are homes, stores, offices and educational facilities located along each of the Connector alternatives. One of the challenges we face in planning for the project is to determine how to design and build ways for indirect access to the roadway.

One of the benefits of the Connector is that it is a limited access roadway to provide higher performance and reduced congestion. To accomplish this, many current access options will not be available. People who live, work and visit services located on the alternatives currently turn directly into and out of parking lots or driveways—but that will not be possible along the expressway sections of the Connector route. One indirect access option is that a homeowner would drive a short distance on a frontage-type road to access a Connector interchange instead of making a left turn out of their driveway.

Read More

Any large infrastructure project like the Connector presents both challenges and opportunities. One of the keys to a successful project is determining how to address the challenges and make the most of the opportunities.

Sometimes bringing the challenges and opportunities together is just a matter of using some imagination. On the Watt Avenue Improvement Project I led for the Sacramento County Department of Transportation, bike paths presented a challenge. Instead of trying to constrain the paths to fit the design, we thought about what the paths could be. Because of that extra effort and imagination, the paths became one of the most prominent and best features of the redesigned bridge.

Read More

New week, new blog entry…I’m getting the hang of this! This week, the blog is a bit more about me and why I’m so excited to be leading the Connector project.

I’ve been thinking about it, and one thing my years of experience have taught me is that you don’t achieve as much dreaming by yourself as you do when you dream with a group. Whether it’s building the Connector or sending a man to the moon—someone had to start the project, with the energy and enthusiasm to get it going, and then translate that energy and ambition to other people to carry it through. That’s my job as the executive director of the Capital SouthEast Connector: I’m the coach, cheerleader and booster club.

Read More

Welcome to a first for me – a foray into the world of blogging! I’m hoping this will prove an effective way to share information and yes, my own perspectives, as the Connector project progresses.

You may already know about the Capital SouthEast Connector, which will link the communities of Elk Grove, Rancho Cordova, Folsom and El Dorado Hills. The process is just getting started and I personally am very excited. The Sacramento region has the opportunity to be on the cutting edge of transportation and to create an iconic project that will be the envy of communities across the country. We have the opportunity to be innovative in the development of the Connector and not build “just another roadway.”

Read More