Rocklin’s plan to rebuild the Rocklin Road interchange and construct a separate crossing over Interstate 80 for pedestrians and bicyclists has missed out on $25 million in federal funding, leaving the project’s construction schedule uncertain.

The Placer County Transportation Planning Agency and Rocklin sought the money through the federal Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development program, known as BUILD. The request would have helped complete the funding plan for improvements projected to cost $47 million.

“We were trying to get the $25 million in federal funding to get the project complete,” PCTPA Executive Director Matt Click said in an interview, adding that officials have secured “essentially the rest of the funding” from other sources.

Click said BUILD was not part of the project’s original funding plan, but officials later pursued it as a way to obtain the remaining money. But when asked how the result affects the construction schedule, he said it was “impossible to say right now.”

Click said PCTPA is assisting Rocklin with the search for money but does not oversee the work or control the construction schedule.

“This project is being managed by the city of Rocklin,” Click said. “We are working with them as the regional planning agency to try to help obtain funding, but we are not overseeing the project itself.”

The proposed improvements would replace the existing interchange with a diverging diamond configuration, which temporarily shifts vehicles to the opposite side of the road to reduce conflicts when drivers enter or leave the freeway. A dedicated bicycle and pedestrian overcrossing would be constructed north of Rocklin Road.

Pedestrians and bicyclists currently travel through a five-lane undercrossing with narrow sidewalks, no shoulders and no bicycle lanes. The overcrossing would create a separated connection between Sierra College and downtown Rocklin.

Rocklin Rd/I-80 interchange video, captured March 31, 2026.

The City Council selected the diverging diamond design in November 2023. The project received state environmental approval that month, followed by federal environmental and Caltrans approvals in May 2024. Environmental review and design are funded through traffic-impact fees collected by Rocklin and the South Placer Regional Transportation Authority, but the city is still seeking construction funding.

The federal application is not the project’s only opportunity. PCTPA and Rocklin separately requested $25 million through California’s Active Transportation Program for the same bicycle and pedestrian improvements.

“We’re attacking it from many fronts,” Click said. “We didn’t want to put all of our eggs in one basket.”

Click said the state program is a close match for the project because the requested money would pay for the bicycle and pedestrian components crossing I-80.

“The state right now says November. Sometimes they push those back,” Click said, adding that officials will likely know by then whether the project received state funding.

Although the U.S. Department of Transportation did not fund Rocklin’s application this year, it designated the proposal a “Project of Merit.” Under the federal grant rules, that means the application advanced to the department’s highly rated list and is scheduled to be carried into the fiscal 2027 competition, subject to congressional authorization and funding. The designation does not guarantee an award.

Rocklin faced competition from nearly 1,200 eligible applications seeking more than $14.5 billion. The Transportation Department awarded $1.73 billion to 127 projects nationwide.

“At the federal level, there’s just not enough money to fund everything through federal partnership like there was 25 to 30 years ago,” Click said. “They release funding through these competitive grant cycles. And then you got to go win it.”

Click noted that PCTPA successfully helped obtain a $23 million BUILD grant for State Route 65 in the previous funding cycle. But with far more projects seeking money than the federal government can support, he acknowledged that “you’re not going to have a win rate of 100%.”