South Lake Tahoe's Sierra Boulevard study released for public review

The Sierra Boulevard Complete Streets Project is slated to start construction as soon as the building season in South Lake Tahoe gets underway in 2018. As part of the process, an The Initial Sturdy/Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) is now up for review and public comment. Comments can be made until March 26, 2018.

Funded by grants, the .6 mile stretch of Sierra Boulevard starting at Highway 50 will have Class 1 and Class 2 bike lanes, parallel parking spots, reduced lane size, lighted sidewalks, underground utilities, landscaping, crosswalks and water quality improvements. The City will integrate a Complete Streets design concept providing opportunities for non-motorized transportation with the addition of bike lanes, shared use (bicycle and pedestrian) facilities on one side of the street,
a pedestrian path on the other side of the street, street lighting adjacent to the proposed pedestrian and shared use facilities, landscaping, water quality treatment galleries, and storm drain conveyance system. The pedestrian path will connect to the proposed South Tahoe Greenway Shared Use Trail being implemented by the California Tahoe Conservancy. Onstreet parking will be included along with landscaping all within the existing 81-foot-wide road right-of-way.

Planners have worked with residents and Sierra Community Church to have more parking through a proposed dedicated parking lane is also proposed.

Construction staging will be located on an El Dorado County owned section of Barbara Avenue heading southwest from Sierra Boulevard toward Lodi Street that would be closed to through traffic.

The street will be built to withstand the heavy equipment that travels the road during winter as plows and trucks access the Caltrans snow storage yard at the south end of Sierra Boulevard.

After several months of planning and public input, the plans released are considered 90 percent, meaning just 10 percent of the final project needs to be completed.

The Sierra Boulevard project ties the planned south Tahoe Greenway Shared Use Trail (at Barbara Avenue and Sierra Blvd.) being implemented by the California Tahoe Conservancy to the Caltrans’ planned intersection improvements at Sierra Boulevard and US Highway 50.

Caltrans will start work on their portion and the end of summer 2018 as part of their three-year long Highway 50 project, and the Sierra Blvd. project will take two building seasons, 2018-19.

An electronic copy of the CEQA MND is available online at http://www.cityofslt.us/DocumentCenter/View/9510. Hard copies are also available for viewing at City Hall located at 1901 Airport Road and at the Services Center located at 1052 Tata Lane.

Specifically, project improvements include the construction of a recreational bike trail, a five foot wide pedestrian walkway on one side of the street, City standard street lighting along the bike trail, landscaping, water quality treatment galleries, and a storm drain conveyance system. A dedicated parking lane is also proposed, giving more parking than originally planned to the church and locals living in the area.

The 90 percent plans and environmental documents will be presented to the City of South Lake Tahoe Planning Commission. Once approved by the commission, Caltrans issues an "Authorization to Proceed With Construction" perhaps in March or April, 2018. Once approved, the City can advertise for a contractor through a bid process.

"We'll be on the fast tract to award the contract in June and construction will start soon after," said City of South Lake Tahoe Associate Engineer Stan Hill.

For questions, contact Hill at shill@cityofslt.us.