Initial activities include one way traffic controls
Construction of the long planned Southern connection of Silver Springs Parkway to Bass Lake Road at the 25 MPH curve between Madera Way and Magnolia Hills Drive is set to begin on Thursday September 3rd.
The northern segment of Silver Springs Parkway was constructed in 2014. It comes in at just 500 feet short of a mile. The project has been known as the “new Bass Lake Road” as far back as the late 1980s and into the mid 1990s. It is a road segment that connects Bass Lake Road, north to Green Valley Road, just to the east of Pleasant Grove Middle School in Rescue. Silver Springs Parkway will serve the 234 home Silver Springs residential development, with it’s initial subdivision, REVERE, under construction now. The 2014 Project constructed the northern segment of Silver Springs Parkway, including a traffic signal at the Silver Springs Parkway – Green Valley Road intersection, and also improved the (western) Deer Valley Road – Green Valley Road intersection with turn pockets and left turn lanes.
El Dorado County Department of Transportation Details
The El Dorado County Department of Transportation provided the following details about the construction timelines, and possible impacts for motorists on Bass Lake Road.
There will be reversing controls (alternating one-way traffic) on Bass Lake Road on Thursday, September 3. Granite Construction will be performing small excavations to positively determine the locations of some EID underground facilities prior to the start of construction.
Construction will start in full on Tuesday, September 8. At this point, Granite Construction does not see a need to implement reversing controls on Bass Lake Road on a regular basis during the rest of the 2020 construction season. Most of the 2020 work will take place off road, north of the 25 mph curve in the woods between the curve and current southerly terminus of Silver Springs. There will be reversing controls on Bass Lake from time to time, but it won’t be for weeks on end or anything like that.
In spring 2021, we will be closing Bass Lake between Magnolia Hills and Madera for a couple of months to reconstruct Bass Lake Road just east of the Bass Lake/Silver Springs intersection. The County’s posted detour will send traffic to Green Valley and Silver Springs (which will then be open from Green Valley Road to Bass Lake Road). This presumes, of course, that Granite Construction is successful in completing the work they have planned for 2020 without utility relocation delays or non-climatic weather delays.
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Safety And Circulation Improvements Will Finally Arrive For Area Residents
When completed, the planned Silver Springs Parkway – Bass Lake Road intersection will be a three-way stop, controlled with stop signs. Motorists traveling north on Bass Lake Road that wish to continue on Bass Lake Road towards Magnolia Hills Drive, Woodleigh Lane, Gateway Drive, Parkdale Lane, Green Valley Elementary School, and Foxmore Lane, will need to complete a right turn movement in the newly constructed right turn lane at the new intersection. Likewise, motorists traveling south on Bass Lake road approaching the new intersection, will need to complete either a left turn to continue south on Bass Lake Road, or a right turn to proceed north on Silver Springs Parkway.
Included in designs presented at a Bass Lake Action Committee Meeting in September 2017 are a right turn pocket on northbound Bass Lake Road onto Madera Way. The Design images also suggest a four-foot bicycle lane from Madera Way north to Silver Springs Parkway. Included in these drawings are what appear to be partial sidewalks at the new intersection. The Northern Section of Silver Springs Parkway has bicycle lanes and sidewalks on both the west and east sides of the roadway. The Southern extension is expected to continue the bicycle and sidewalk facilities.
Project Costs Over Time Have Only Grown
The Southern Extension of Silver Springs Parkway project was listed in the 2010 El Dorado County Capital Improvement Program (CIP) as a $6.374 Million project. In subsequent years the project costs have grown – exploding to an $11.478 Million project in the 2020 El Dorado County Capital Improvement Program.
| YEAR | El Dorado CIP Projected Costs Silver Springs Parkway South Segment Project 76108 / 36105039 |
|---|---|
| 2010 | $6,374,000.00 |
| 2011 | N/A |
| 2012 | N/A |
| 2013 | $7,346,000.00 |
| 2014 | $8,573,000.00 |
| 2015 | $8,896,000.00 |
| 2016 | $9,449,000.00 |
| 2017 | $9,457,000.00 |
| 2018 | $9,459,000.00 |
| 2019 | $9,460,000.00 |
| 2020 | $11,478,000.00 |
| Data from the El Dorado County Capital Improvement Program Books – 2010 – 2020 |
