DOWNIEVILLE — Caltrans began the ambitious project of repaving CA–49 from Coyoteville to Belle Street on Monday, August 12th. From 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. for the entire week, a Caltrans army from District 3 in Marysville worked to repave this critical transportation artery while attempting not to inconvenience locals and tourist traffic.

It was quite a juggling act. Caltrans initially started paving one lane from Coyoteville to Commercial Street in Downieville, with the greatest inconvenience to traffic caused by the one-lane Jersey Bridge, the only state highway and evacuation route in all of California with one lane. The section from Downieville Grocery Store to the Jersey Bridge proved tricky, requiring an orchestra of activity to scrape, drop asphalt, compact it, and then steamroll it within just a couple of hours.

The hot asphalt comes out at 260 degrees, is packed by the heavy steamroller, then followed by the rolling machine that rides on a flexible rubber track and pushes the air out of the asphalt. The process is much like kneading dough. The crew works as a team and pushes asphalt chunks back into the road, where a smaller steam roller, called the “Finisher,” comes behind to smooth it seamlessly into the curb and county infrastructure. A fine black mesh was placed in town drainages to prevent debris from entering the local watershed.

The asphalt was cooled to 150 degrees, the projected black pavement temperature on a 115-degree day, before cars were allowed on the fresh surface. The team finished and sealed the highway early this week. So, while the traffic may have caused some frustration, Downieville may have the title of the smoothest and shiniest stretch of the Scenic Highway 49 Corridor, at least for the moment.