Part of East Jibboom Street may go one-way

Truckee’s East Jibboom Street may go one-way between Keiser Avenue and Bridge Street.

A proposed traffic change would only allow vehicles to travel in an east-to-west direction from Keiser Avenue to Bridge Street, but would not change two-way traffic on the portion of Jibboom Street behind Commercial row between Bridge Street and Spring Street. The portion of East Jibboom Street beyond Keiser Avenue, previously planned to be extended to connect to Donner Pass Road above Glenshire Drive, would also be two-way.

“What we are seeing is an increase in pedestrian traffic on that section into downtown from current residents, the Stoneridge Townhomes and the up-coming Barsell project,” said Truckee Public Works Director Dan Wilkins.

Because the particular stretch of East Jibboom street is relatively narrow, the presence of two-way traffic is starting to create pedestrian safety issues, Wilkins said.

He said the potential change to one-way is one of three or four options to be presented to town council this summer, alternatives that range from a roughly $4 million road-widening project to leaving East Jibboom Street as is.

The road-widening option would require retaining walls and tearing out existing stone walls with potential archeological significance, Wilkins said.

“I don’t think it’s feasible economically ” it’s cost-prohibitive as well as environmentally damaging,” he said.

Before anything changes, Wilkins said East Jibboom Street would have to be extended past the Sierra Mountain Cemetery to Donner Pass Road as part of the Barsell project, which is the proposed site for a 110-room Marriot Residence Inn.

Additionally, improvements would have to be made to the intersection of Keiser Avenue and East Jibboom Street, and a possible roundabout constructed at East Jibboom Street and Donner Pass Road, Wilkins said.

If the town council selects the one-way option, Wilkins said staff would recommend a trial period to test traffic patterns on the proposed one-way stretch, so any change would still be a few years off.

The Truckee Cemetery District Board of Trustees has protested the proposal, saying the one-way change would be detrimental to the cemetery.

“We feel it would impede access to the cemetery and impede funeral processions going to the cemetery,” said board Chairman Clare Aguera.

“It would mean a funeral procession would have to go up Donner Pass Road/ Highway 89 north, then go into a roundabout into the Barsell area, and then into the cemetery,” Aguera said. “And turning from 89 onto Keiser is not even a hairpin ” it’s a Vee. I don’t know if a hearse could make it.”

Wilkins said the new proposal is not to be confused with a past attempt to make Jibboom Street a one-way street.

“Back in the early ’90s just before Truckee incorporated, Nevada County installed a one-way [circulation loop] with Jibboom Street and Commercial Row, but they removed it after a few months’ time,” Wilkins said. “We don’t want people to confuse that with what we are talking about now.”

While that project changed the portion of Jibboom Street between Bridge and Spring streets, the current proposal is to the east of that, between Bridge Street and Keiser Avenue, he said.