Tired of being stuck in traffic on Highway 41 in Madera County? Relief is on the way

Highway 41 will undergo a major expansion through southeastern Madera County as traffic from new home developments, commuters and visitors to Yosemite National Park continue to clog this rural two-lane highway.

“Every year it seems like it traffic gets heavier and heavier,” said Venetia Collier of North Fork. “It is getting to the point that something needs to be done.”

That “something” is happening. Caltrans is in the process of completing an environmental impact report on a plan to widen 6.1 miles of the highway from just south of Avenue 11 to about a mile north of Avenue 15.

As part of the Madera 41 South Expressway project, the new highway will be built in two phases. The first phase calls for the construction of four lanes, two lanes going south and two lanes going north. A portion of the highway will be built as an expressway, meaning there will be no exits.

The additional lanes will hopefully clear the bottleneck that occurs when northbound Highway 41 narrows to two lanes near Avenue 11 in Madera County.

Caltrans data shows that daily traffic through the area was nearly 27,000 vehicles. That is expected to climb to 57,500 vehicles by 2037.

Chris Gardener, a project manager at Caltrans, said Madera County has several major new home developments that will substantially increase traffic in the coming years.

Gardener expects the environmental review that began in 2016 to be completed by late 2019 or early 2020 and construction to begin by 2021. If everything falls into place, the new highway will be ready by 2023 — and all of it will be funded by the builders of the new homes.

“We have to plan for what the future could hold and how much traffic will be generated from that growth,” Gardener said.

The newest home development to launch is Tesoro Viejo, a 5,200 home development north of Road 204 and east of Highway 41. The 1,600-acre development held a grand opening on Saturday. The sprawling project mimics small-town living complete with a town center, school and green space.

Just south of Tesoro Viejo and west of Avenue 12 is another massive development called Riverstone. When fully built, it will add 6, 578 homes to the neighborhood, said developer Tim Jones. It has already sold about 250 homes.

Although Jones is aware that traffic in the area will only get worse without improvements, he isn’t thrilled that it’s being put on the backs of the home builders.

“These roads were impacted long before any of the new home development came along,” Jones said. “But as you know, snarled traffic is not good for anyone. And we will pay our fair share.”

Madera County levies a road impact fee for every new home built. Currently, the fee is $10,600 per home. Jones estimates that over time, he will contribute roughly $70 million towards new road construction and improvements.

Gardener estimates that the total cost of the first phase of the highway widening project will be about $95 million. The second phase is more controversial and involves the relocation of 26 businesses between avenues 14 and 15.

As part of the second phase, the entire 6.1 miles of the new highway will become an expressway, meaning there will be no access to the businesses along the highway. That will require Caltrans to buy the property where the businesses are located.

“That has become a sticking point, but there may not be any other way around it,” Gardener said.

The second phase of the plan is not expected to begin until the mid-2030s.

This story was originally published October 19, 2018 at 4:24 PM.