Kings Beach moves ahead with highway improvements

RENO — Transportation planners on Lake Tahoe’s north shore are moving forward with plans to make more than $30 million in improvements over the next four or five years to streets, sidewalks, bike lanes and drainage systems along the lakefront highway at Kings Beach, Calif.

The Placer County Board of Supervisors awarded a $21.3 million contract this week to the Sparks, Nev.-based Q&D Construction for the main work on a 1.1 mile stretch of California Highway 28 as part of the Kings Beach Commercial Core Improvement Project.

The project is intended to make the community more pedestrian friendly while accommodating future transit needs.

In addition to installing new sidewalks, curbs, gutters and storm drains, the work will include revegetation along some drainages, designation of specific areas for on-street parking and construction of new off-street parking.

Supervisor Jennifer Montgomery said a key part of the project will be improved treatment of stormwater runoff that flows at a clip of 45,000 pounds of sediment annually into Lake Tahoe.

Several drainage systems within the project area have been found to be deficient.

“Everyone, from the local level to the federal level, realizes that we need to do all we can to stop the loss of clarity that Lake Tahoe has suffered since the 1950s,” Montgomery said.

Supervisors approved a $2.4 million construction management contract for the “Core of the Core” phase to Colorado-based CH2M Hill, Inc., in September.

Work is expected to begin in April 2014 and will take two construction seasons, possibly three, county officials said.

An additional $10 million is needed to build elements for Phase 2 of the project, which includes various highway and drainage improvements. Completion of both phases is not expected until at least 2017.

Dan Laplante, associate civil engineer for the Placer County Department of Public Works, said residents, businesses and county staff deserve credit for working together to mold such an ambitious project.

It “will make Kings Beach more attractive, and a safer place for residents and visitors to travel through and have improved non-motorized modes of accessibility in the community,” he said.