Highway 50 in the downtown area is currently undergoing a nine-week rehabilitation construction project(known as “Fix50”) that began on Tuesday, April 22 . The stretch involved is a main thoroughfare for people living in the Pocket-Greenhaven area and Davis, who commute to school. The Octagon asked them how the first week of the construction has gone.
Elie Kuppermann, sophomore
I live in Davis, and that first Tuesday was a big surprise. We left early from home because we knew about the construction, and we still got to school 20 minutes late.
We used to wake up at 7 a.m., but if we do that now, we will be late. Even when the construction flips to the other side of the freeway, we’ll still be affected because I have to go to Folsom every afternoon for dance and we have to go westbound on Highway 50.
I think it was greedy of CalTrans to do it now rather than during the summer. The only reason why they are doing this is because of the State Fair, but it’s affecting our daily lives right now.
Max Schmitz, sophomore
I’m a Davisite. That (first) Tuesday I woke up at 7 a.m. and was out the door by 7:30.
For the first 20 minutes we were making good progress, but as soon as we left Yolo County, traffic came to a standstill. There were long lines and it was incredibly bleak. As I drove past the construction, there were clouds of concrete dust drifting across the freeway.
My family is new to the Sacramento area, so we don’t know any of the secret routes that everyone else does. When I got to school, I was 30 minutes late to first period.
Bruce Baird, history teacher
I live in Galt and take Highway 99 usually. There has been practically no traffic since Fix50 has started.
I usually leave at around 6:30 a.m. and hit the 99/50 interchange at 7 a.m., but the construction is thinning out traffic. I thought I might have to take the back streets near Elk Grove, but I haven’t had to.
When it switches to the other side of the freeway, I might be more affected, but school will be getting out at that point. Fix50 has been great so far!
Diego Perochena, sophomore
I live in Pocket, and I am currently taking an alternate route to school because of construction. The first day we saw bumper-to-bumper traffic from the Florin overpass on Interstate 5, so instead I take Florin east all the way to Power Inn Road, and then ride that all the way up north to when it becomes Howe Avenue.
When I drive home, I can see the traffic backing up across the West Sacramento Bridge. It looks like LA traffic.
Melissa Vasquez, junior
I’m a Davisite, but I was staying at (junior) Clare Fina’s house in East Sac on last Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night after my first Fix50 ordeal.
It took me an hour to get to school the first day, and after that I decided that I wasn’t going to go through that again the next morning, so I packed my suitcase and moved to Clare’s.
I went back home to Davis on Friday, and I’ve been making the commute so far this week. The traffic hasn’t been too bad as of late, so I’ll probably stay put. But since the construction is going through different phases, I’ll just move back to Clare’s if the conditions get bad again.
Zoe Dym, sophomore
I’m living in Pocket, but my sister goes to Sutter Middle School, and with the construction that is happening right now, we are carpooling to try and keep one more car off the road. We also have to take a different route, which means we have to leave at 7:05 a.m. instead of 7:30.
Johnson Ma, junior
I live in Pocket-Greenhaven, and I have to leave my house 25 minutes earlier than I usually have to. It is annoying. The first day, my host mom was super scared that we would be late to school, and because of that we left home at 6:50 a.m. because everyone on the radio was warning of hour-long delays.
Turns out that it wasn’t as bad as everyone had feared, and we actually got to school at 7:20 that morning. I can’t wait for construction to finish!
