City engineers are finishing up work on Willow Avenue between Shepard and International Avenues and plan to reopen the northbound and southbound lanes by Monday, Feb. 24.
Crews will work on the lanes throughout the Feb. 22 through Feb. 23 weekend.
Once the road reopens, it will take additional time to get all the signal lights in working order. This means the signal lights along the stretch of Willow Avenue that was under construction will continue to flash red for several days after the road opens.
City engineer Kevin Gross said construction began on Willow Avenue to alleviate traffic concerns and to begin work on infrastructure for the Heritage Grove Development that is planned for the area.
“Willow Avenue’s northbound lanes were just an existing county lane, there was only one lane. The southbound direction was in the city of Fresno so it had three lanes and that one northbound lane would get extremely backed up for school traffic, both to Clovis North and to Clovis Community College,” Gross said.
He continued, “That northbound lane was incredibly undeveloped, so not only did we do this project to widen the lanes for the existing traffic, we also installed all the utilities that were necessary such as sewer, storm drains and water to get that area equipped for the infrastructure that is coming in the future, which in the masterplan is Heritage Grove.”
Gross said Willow Avenue would be completely finished – working signal lights and all – by the middle of March.