Lance Gulch Road

What’s a complete Streets?  In Trinity County, Complete Streets meant finding the easiest way between A and B, Right?  This has always in the past been the extent of consideration when constructing a frontier rural highway in California’s remote areas.  Now Complete Streets means something new and more important. Lance Gulch Road (LGR) is a new 1.4 mile minor arterial road constructed east of Weaverville.  Opened Oct. 2015, this multi model road provides better circulation, improves safety, reduces vehicle miles traveled, and better serving residential areas and Trinity’s largest employer, Trinity River Lumber Mill.  Also included, a bicycle lane, and a sidewalk that are heavily used, considered by many to be the new road’s best amenity.  Further, it proved easier access to the solid waste facility, STAA trucks, and new route options for transit.  It represents a new way of thinking in Trinity as to what is important in building a roadway that serves multiple functions. This $14M project was the largest transportation project the County has ever constructed.  It included a 200’ long, 3 span concrete bridge, two box culverts, extensive drainage and storm water treatment features in compliance with water quality permits, and creation of new on-site wetland and riparian mitigation areas, along with the above mentioned sidewalk and bike lanes. Being more specific on some of the aspects of the road; • Material delivery and product transport to and from the Mill can now use multiple access points along LGR, allowing a change to on-site circulation to use the new intersection constructed in the rear of the mill.  Soon, large trucks will no longer be making difficult turns onto a sweeping curved section of SR299 thus increasing the traffic circulation efficiencies, safety and reducing congestion on SR299. • A parallel route closer to town has the community park on one side of the road, and the local elementary school on the other; LGR greatly improving student and pedestrian safety by relocating interregional traffic to the new road. • Bicyclists are provided a new bike lane along the route and will connect to a future Lowden Park Trail improving park and school access and bicyclist safety. • Pedestrians, including residents of the Senior Apartments, visitors to the Golden Age Senior Center, and residents in the area now will have direct access the future Lowden Park Trail and the shopping center improving pedestrian safety, and every day to access shopping, to jog, and to stroll.  Eventually when the missing link is complete, the community will have a paved surface loop walk that is over three miles long. By the numbers, this project is a significant improvement to bikes and pedestrians.  When the road opens, the length of sidewalks on county roads doubled, and if you include sidewalks on the state highway, increased by 18%.  As far as bike lanes on county roads, this project represented a 34% increase countywide.  That makes LGR a complete street.