Placer County looks to federal grant and tolling strategy for Highway 65 expansion.
After the narrow defeat of Measure B in November 2024, Placer County officials are actively pursuing alternative funding avenues to address critical transportation infrastructure needs in the region.
Measure B was a proposed half-cent sales tax intended to generate approximately $1.58 billion over the following 30 years for improvements to roads and highways in Roseville, Rocklin, and Lincoln. Although it received nearly 64% support from voters, it did not achieve the two-thirds majority needed for approval.
Measure B's primary objective was to reduce traffic congestion and improve transportation infrastructure in the rapidly growing South Placer area. It focused on widening Highway 65, improving the I-80/65 interchange, and building Placer Parkway to connect Highway 65 to Highway 99. The financing plan also included widening Baseline Road, repairing local streets in Roseville, Rocklin, and Lincoln, and expanding public transit, bike lanes, and pedestrian infrastructure to support future growth.
Following the failure of the sales tax measure, the Placer County Transportation Planning Agency has signaled that some road improvement projects may be paused indefinitely, while others will need to be reimagined.
During a February board meeting, Matt Click, the executive director of the Placer County Transportation Planning Agency, announced that an application had been submitted for a federal grant known as the BUILD Grant Program, seeking $22 million. If approved, the funding will help finance Phase 1 of the Highway 65 widening project, which aims to add a third lane through the most congested part of southbound Highway 65 between Blue Oaks Blvd and Galleria Blvd, and also add an auxiliary lane between Pleasant Grove Blvd and Galleria Blvd.
The full scope of the widening project stretches from Galleria Boulevard to Twelve Bridges Drive in Lincoln and includes multiple auxiliary lanes, general-purpose lanes, and high-occupancy vehicle lanes. But without Measure B funding, Click said during the meeting that future phases of the project may be scrapped altogether.
Click urged the board to embrace a reimagined approach to tackling congestion on Highway 65. "We've got to move on, we've got to pivot, and we have to talk about what we can afford," he said. He also emphasized that even if the sales tax measure had passed, it wouldn't have fully funded the widening project. Instead, the tax revenue would have served as a dedicated local source to "match" state and federal funds—a requirement to unlock additional transportation dollars.
During a March board meeting, Click stated that the agency is actively working with Caltrans District 3 through a series of workshops to discuss the future of Highway 65. He noted that the Placer County Transportation Planning Agency is preparing a Project Initiation Document (PID) to evaluate the addition of toll express lanes in the highway's median as part of a reimagined strategy to address congestion.
"The big question is, what do we do moving forward when we want to expand from four general-purpose lanes to six—pushing the corridor inward? What we'd like to evaluate with the PID is the potential for the two inner lanes between Galleria and Lincoln to operate as tolled express lanes," said Click during the meeting.
The announcement of toll express lanes comes as no surprise, given that Matt Click serves on the board of the newly established Capital Area Regional Tolling Authority (CARTA), representing the Placer County Transportation Planning Agency. Formed in 2024, CARTA is a joint powers authority created to oversee tolling infrastructure across the region.
CARTA, in partnership with Caltrans District 3 and the Yolo Transportation District, is currently advancing a 17-mile project between Dixon and Sacramento that will introduce the region's first toll lanes. The project will widen Interstate 80 from six to eight lanes, aiming to alleviate congestion along one of Northern California's busiest commuter corridors.
The reimagined approach for Highway 65 appears to mirror this model—shifting from traditional freeway widening to a managed lanes strategy that relies on dynamic tolling to maintain traffic flow.
"There's absolutely no more time to wait, and that's why we are going to move forward with a PID to look at express lanes," said Click during the March meeting. The PID is expected to be completed by fall of this year.
