Interstate 5 is one of Sacramento's most traveled routes and perhaps one of its most troubled – at least through a one-mile section of downtown Sacramento between L and S Streets. Caltrans engineers call this area the "Boat Section," due to its long history of maintenance issues and potential flooding. Today nearly 190,000 daily commuters travel through the Boat Section. More than 10% of that traffic is big rigs hauling freight up and down the west coast's premier goods movement corridor. Caltrans engineers began working on the I-5 Boat Section in the 1960s and '70s. It was a difficult project. First, they had to de-water the area – no small task considering the Boat Section runs well below the waterline of the Sacramento River. The engineers used strategically placed pumps to drain all the water from specific areas along the roadway. Once the water was drained, Caltrans engineers started building a seal slab that was up to 10 feet thick in some places. To hold the slab in place, the engineers drilled pins more than 80 feet deep. They put in thick retaining walls and a drainage channel between the seal slab and the pavement to catch any water that might penetrate the seal slab. All traces of water captured in this narrow channel and through a series of roadside drains are collected and subsequently pumped right back into the river. To keep a close eye on the pumps, Caltrans engineers installed lights on top of roadside pumps, so they could drive by and quickly check the situation. Those pumps are still in use today, and any time it starts raining Caltrans maintenance workers make the Boat Section a top priority. After three years and more than $13 million dollars, the Boat Section was officially and quietly opened in 1970. Since then, the section has been subject to periodic flooding but was only closed once. That incident occurred in January of 1980 when a combination of heavy rains and a faulty valve at the Sacramento Regional Sanitation District flooded the Boat Section and closed I-5 for nearly an entire weekend. Fast-forward to 2008. The real problem with the Boat Section lies just beneath the surface. River silt and sand are creating blockages in the drainage system. Thus, as hydrostatic forces push water through the joints in the seal slab, the water has nowhere to go but up through the pavement. This situation is causing cracks, spalls and deterioration on the surface. Many of these cracks and leaks are visible even to the most casual traveler. This section of vital roadway needs to be repaired before it's too late.