(KTXL) — A portion of roadway in Rocklin has been closed since Jan. 16 after stormwater damaged a culvert under the road and created a 12-foot wide sinkhole.
On Tuesday night the Rocklin City Council approved a resolution to begin emergency repairs on the roadway on Midas Avenue between Argonaut Avenue and 5th Street.
Midas Avenue is a high-traffic roadway that connects Downtown Rocklin with the dense residential Sunset Whitney area.
By claiming the road damage as an emergency the city will be able to bypass the usual competitive solicitation for bids and all repair work to begin sooner, according to Rocklin City Council member Bill Halldin.
Halldin said that even with the expeditated repair process the city is still estimating a repair time of between 10 to 12 weeks as a new block concrete culvert will be built under the roadway.
“The staff recommends a block concrete culvert that has to be made to required specifications — in other words, you can’t buy this “off the shelf,” Halldin said in a social media post on Wednesday.
While the road closure has been going on several changes have been made to traffic management in the surrounding area.
The timing of lights has been adjusted at Sunset Boulevard and Whitney Boulevard to allow more time for traffic to ease off of Whitney onto Sunset.
“We asked staff to explore eliminating on-street parking in front of the new Starbucks at Whitney and Sunset to create another lane for cars not turning left at that intersection and the possibility of a pedestrian walkway on Midas at the closed roadway,” Halldin wrote in the post.
Halldin said that the city council said that the city was asked “to do whatever possible to expedite the process, including payments to accelerate the creation of this block culvert.”
At the time of the creation of the report, there was no estimated cost for the new culvert to be built.