Caltrans makes room for taller trucks by raising I-80 overpasses
By Tony Bizjak, Sacramento Bee
After a year of heavy lifting, California highway officials are nearly done with an improbable task on Interstate 80 in Placer County: raising seven freeway overcrossings between Loomis and Weimar, in some cases by more than 2 feet.
The $36 million “Raise 80” project has involved jacking up and repositioning 1,000-plus ton overpasses, many of them a half-century old, to comply with federal 16-foot-6-inch standards so modern supersized trucks and military vehicles can squeeze under them.
Caltrans spokeswoman Liza Whitmore said completing the project has taken a combination of brute strength and intricate choreography.
