Caltrans: Willits bypass won’t be done until 2017

The Willits bypass is not expected to be ready for traffic until the summer of 2017, the result of a series of regulatory, legal and protest-related delays, Caltrans officials say.

The project had been scheduled for opening in 2016.

Caltrans officials say the delays will add millions of dollars to the cost of the $210 million, 5.9-mile project that will shunt highway traffic around Willits. Highway 101 currently runs through downtown Willits, and the drive through town can take up to 30 minutes with stoplights and traffic.

“We anticipate our contractor will be filing for delay claims of $5 million to $10 million,” Caltrans spokesman Phil Frisbie said.

A number of factors, including Caltrans’ failure to meet the requirements of several of its water and wildlife agency permits, contributed to the delays, but Frisbie said the biggest factors were lawsuits filed by environmentalists.

The latest was a challenge to the excavation of fill dirt slated for use on the bypass. A nearly three-week temporary restraining order that accompanied the lawsuit delayed delivery of the dirt, which needs to be in place and allowed to compact for about six months prior to construction resuming on several bridge footings, according to Caltrans.

Soil deliveries resumed in high speed after the restraining order was lifted, but a rainstorm soon halted work again. Caltrans cannot move soil once the rains come because it can wash sediment into streams.

Environmentalists’ protests also have periodically delayed construction since it began last year. They’ve included people blocking roads and spending days at a time perched in construction cranes.

Willits environmentalist Naomi Wagner said Caltrans is wrongly blaming protesters for the year delay and millions of dollars in costs, which she suspects is being exaggerated. She noted that the agency’s failure to comply with the terms of some of its permits, such as offsetting the loss of wetlands on schedule, also caused delays.

However, she admits that protesters wanted the project delayed and that it is to their advantage.

“That might allow more time for redesigning the northern interchange,” Wagner said.

Opponents of the current bypass plan - now nearly 50 percent completed - continue to lobby for its footprint to be reduced.

While the initial bypass is just two lanes, its base is being constructed to eventually accommodate four lanes.

If Caltrans were to agree to reduce the unfinished interchange at the north end, it could save acres of wetlands in the Little Lake Valley that surrounds Willits and the many Native American archaeological sites believed to buried in the valley, opponents say. Caltrans is required to mitigate the wetland losses, but critics say it’s better to preserve wetlands than try to create new ones elsewhere.

The delay provides more time to further promote a reduced project, Wagner said.

She said there is a plan for accomplishing that goal but would not reveal what it is.

You can reach Staff Writer Glenda ?Anderson at 462-6473 or glenda.?anderson@pressdemocrat.com. ?On Twitter @MendoReporter.