TAHOE CITY, Calif. — Despite a $10 million funding gap and a delay to the initial traffic management plan, the Kings Beach three-lane resizing project remains on track for completion by 2013.

At Thursday's Truckee North Tahoe Transportation Management Association meeting, Peter Kraatz, Placer County Public Works deputy director, said he would be ecstatic if the county could begin construction of its neighborhood traffic calming plan — to slow traffic in Kings Beach's back streets — by the end of this summer.

“Whether we can pull construction off in 2010, I'm not sure,” he said.

Kraatz referred to a state policy change that earlier this spring halted a $3.9 million service agreement with Folsom-based Dokken Engineering, which was unanimously approved by the board of supervisors on April 6.

The hold-up requires the county to advertise contract work with locally under-utilized companies in the eastern part of the county, Kraatz said, near the Tahoe region.

“It sets us back a couple of months — not drastically. Our overall construction schedule is still looking to break ground next year in 2011 and we'll still get a full season of construction next year,” he said.

Kraatz said the county is still trying to pursue federal funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, specifically through Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grants.

Last year Kraatz said the county was unable to secure grant money from a TIGER 1 grant. This year, Kraatz said the county is applying for TIGER 2, a competitive $600 million dollar grant awarded to different transportation projects across the nation.

Win or lose, Kraatz said numerous funding options are being considered and the project has been organized in phases to allow ample time for funding.

Transit Center

At the meeting Kraatz said a $7 million transit center in Tahoe City is scheduled to break ground in the next couple of weeks.

The transit center, described as a project encompassing 2.5 acres of the 64-acre recreational park located off Highway 89, required a longer-than-estimated planning period, he said, but should be completed this year.

“We're still looking at that one as being a one-season project,” he said, adding that the timeline is only an estimation because the county hasn't received the final construction schedule from Aspen Contractors, based out of Truckee.

Kraatz said there shouldn't be any significant community impacts beside some road improvement on Highway 89 that would be held off until after Labor Day.

According to plans, the facility will include 130 parking places, room for up to six buses, bike lockers, benches, enclosed office space and public restrooms.