For many years the trip along Freeport Blvd. for students riding bikes to and from C.K McClatchy High School and Sacramento City College involved the choice between riding with fast-moving cars, trucks and buses or riding in the gutter to avoid those hazards — there aren’t bike lanes along Freeport Blvd. between 4th Ave. and Sac City College.
This month, Freeport Blvd. is finally being reconfigured to accommodate bike traffic. Work began in late May and continues into mid-August, when the fall session at C.K. McClatchy High School begins. The Sacramento City Council approved the project nearly four years ago. McClatchy students began pressuring the City of Sacramento to make these improvements a decade ago.
The project involves resealing and restriping this mile stetch of Freeport Blvd. to collapse four travel lanes for cars into three lanes – one in each direction and a center turn lane – and add bike lanes on both sides. Several crosswalks will be also added and two bus stops will be modified. The project will significantly improve convenience and safety for people traveling along and across this section of Freeport Blvd. Businesses reachable by an easy bike ride or walk will also benefit from the improvements.
The biggest element of the project is replacement of rolled curbs with vertical curbs along the west side of Freeport from Vallejo St. to Park Road, opposite Sac City College. Vertical curbs have a narrower gutter pan that accommodates bike lanes.
The street has already been temporarily restriped to create space for work crews along the west side. This explains why bike lanes have not yet been added – they’ll be installed after the curb phase is completed around the first week of August and the street is resealed and restriped.