Nicolaus Road Widening Project

A recently completed widening of a 1 mile section of Nicolaus Road demonstrates the ability of Frayji Design Group to accomplish for its clients what many others deemed impossible. The City of Lincoln, California looked to upgrade a 1-mile stretch of Nicolaus Road that had been deemed structurally deficient yet was increasingly receiving traffic. Located directly south of the Lincoln Regional Airport, the prior 22 foot wide road needed to be widened to 32 feet, providing for two 12 foot travel lanes, one 4 foot shoulder and bike lane in each direction, and a center median. However, the project had been stalled due to funding issues and the complexities of negotiating with the Federal Aviation Administration. Lincoln enlisted Frayji Design Group and its partnering company team to assist with the project.

In response, Frayji Design Group worked on behalf of the City of Lincoln to expedite delivery of the project. First, Frayji Design Group seized the opportunity to submit a proposal, with engineer’s budget estimate, for a grant that was due the following day. Although required to be completed in an extreme rush, the proposal won the grant, funding the project with a budget that was remarkably accurate.  

The grant timeline of just 12 months drove the project with a rapid design and construction schedule. Deft handling of site constraints, such as maintaining the vital transportation link open during construction and careful routing to avoid impacting wetlands features allowed the aggressive critical path to be negotiated. Despite naysayers declaring that the federal bureaucracy was utterly unresponsive, the diplomacy and flexibility of Frayji Design Group worked cooperatively with the agencies and secured commitments to move forward faster than anyone surmised was achievable.