Caltrans finally untangling traffic knot at 198 & Lovers Lane

Preliminary work by Caltrans to reroute traffic exiting Highway 198 at Lovers Lane (State Route 216) has begun, reports Visalia City Hall. Preparations will continue through the winter months. Then in March, the project – which includes permanently blocking a portion of Mineral King east of Lovers Lane – goes into high gear.

This is just an operational improvement. Caltrans plans to build a completely new  interchange just east of Lovers Lane at Road 148 that won’t be done until 2035 at the earliest.

Expect Delays, Detours Until Spring 2026

The construction could take as long as two years to complete. Drivers can expect lane closures, frequent delays and long detours that route traffic deep into the neighborhoods of east central Visalia. The intended result is an eventual safer and more efficient movement of traffic, both on surface streets and at the overcrowded 198 on and offramps.

The east- and west-bound interchanges of Lovers Lane and Highway 198 will be remade during the course of the project. New sidewalks and curbing are planned along Lovers Lane. Retaining walls will be constructed. And, finally Mineral King Avenue from Lovers Lane east to Stapp Drive will be removed. That land will become the new westbound ramps.

“They’re going to start in March,” said Ted Smalley, executive director of the Tulare County Association of Governments (TCAG). “My guess is it’s going to take, I always say around two years for construction.”

TCAG is paying the local contribution to the project’s funding required by the state. Of the $23.1 million budget, the state will cover $20.9 million, according to a report Caltrans provided to the Visalia City Council in March 2024. TCAG’s portion, they said, is $2.2 million.

‘Deletion’ of Mineral King Ave out of City Hall’s Hands

The original construction schedule proposed by the California Department of Transportation, put forward some time around 2020, would have seen the project begun in October 2023. Project completion was anticipated by this month, January 2025.

The original unveiling of the Lovers Lane Operational Improvements and Rehabilitation Project by Caltrans received a tepid reception at City Hall.

“No one on council was very thrilled with it,” said Mayor Brett Taylor. “It was a lot of ‘not the best scenario.’”

Since Lovers Lane and Highway 198 are Caltrans maintained state routes, solving the problem of traffic tangling as it fed onto city streets and backing up on the freeway was entirely up to the state agency. The project underway now was Caltrans pick of two alternatives it proposed.

City Hall and the council were left out in the cold.

“The city didn’t have any control over it,” Taylor said. “The state told us what they were doing, and we just had our input in it.”

‘This Is the Worst Intersection in the City’

So a chunk of Mineral King Avenue will be removed. A traffic pattern almost as old as the city – certainly older than anyone driving in Visalia today – will have to change.

“This is going to be the first portion that’s going to be deleted,” Taylor said.

It’s a necessary sacrifice to address the most congested area of town, he added.

“It’s not the perfect solution, but at least it is a solution,” Taylor said. “After the Houston Avenue and Demaree Street issue we were able to fix a couple of years ago, this is the worst intersection in the city.”

Traffic coming into town from the east on the frontage road will be rerouted north at McAuliff Street. Vehicles heading for Lovers Lane will then have to take Mill Creek Parkway to get back on track.

Rebecca Keenan, the city’s senior civil engineer, explained how traffic will eventually flow.

“If you’re coming off of the freeway, you can continue west along Mineral King,” she said. “If you’re coming west along Mineral King from further east, then you’d have to turn on McAuliff. You head north and then west on Mill Creek Parkway.”

Avoiding this option would have been far too costly and destructive, said Taylor. It would have led to the demolition of the area’s key anchor businesses. Some living nearby would also be displaced when their houses were leveled.

“It would have taken out the gas stations and some of the homes, and would have cost a ton of money,” Taylor said. “Considering everything, it really is the best case scenario.”

Temporary Solution to the Lovers Lane Issue

Traffic snarls at the 198-Lovers Lane interchange have been a problem for decades, and the project starting fully this spring will alleviate the immediate problem. At least for now.

“Caltrans did perform several different studies and analysis, and this is the option that will resolve the issues with congestion,” Keenan said. “The other thing they did mention is that this is an operational improvement, so it’s not the ultimate improvement.”

Caltrans plans to add “the ultimate improvement” – another interchange just east of Lovers Lane at Road 148 – with a second project that will be completed no earlier than 2035. City engineers hope the improvements to the 198-Lovers Lane interchange made now will be enough to keep traffic under control until 2035.

“The thought is that as the city continues to grow and we have more development in the area, the 148 interchange, the one that’s being planned, will be doing a lot of the heavy lifting to incorporate the growth,” Keenan said.

Keenan and Smalley both emphasized that there are no plans to eliminate the 198-Lovers Lane interchange, though access to it will be reworked. The state’s Road 148 Interchange Project will eventually offer a smoother and long needed north-to-south route across town. It’s anticipated it will move much of the Lovers Lane traffic to the east.

Taylor said its construction is overdue.

“As the city’s growing, the state’s not keeping up with overpasses,” he said.

Delaying Lovers Lane Project Saved Local Funds

The Lovers Lane upgrade could have started much earlier too. Had the original plan been carried out, the project would likely be complete by now. But it would have cost TCAG and the city a fortune.

“It was a year and a half,” Smalley said.

Because of the way the state’s funding cycle unfolds, the city and TCAG would have paid the entire cost had the project moved forward in 2023. At the time, the price tag was $30.7 million. The latest figures from Caltrans put the project’s cost at $23.1 million, with TCAG ponying up $2.2 million in matching funds and the state paying the remainder.

The cost appears to have dropped somewhat since March 2024, according to Smalley, who expects the project will now need only $21 million in funding. And because of that, the local contribution is also reduced.

“Measured R is (paying for) less than $2 million of this,” he said.

Measure R is a countywide sales tax of 0.5%, approved in 2006 for a 30-year period. The revenue it generates is dedicated to transportation infrastructure construction, maintenance, upgrades and rehab projects. The funds are overseen and spent by TCAG.

According to Mayor Taylor, Smalley has been an outstanding custodian of the money.

“He’s really been fantastic at stretching the Measure R money,” Taylor said.

The 18-month delay saved TCAG $18 million. Smalley said it was obviously worth the wait.

“What happened is this (project) is heavily leveraged,” he said. “If we didn’t wait that year and half we’d pay that entire $21 million. It’s just the way matching funds work.”