For those who live in West Fresno, or the West Shaw area, you know that Clinton gives access to the Highway 99 ramps, the Gateway Ice Center, and other businesses you may frequent (like Domino’s for pickup). You also know that the Clinton and Valentine intersection is a real pain in the ass, as it is constantly bottlenecked by a stop sign that a majority of Fresno drivers make even worse by waiting 10 seconds (even when there’s no cross traffic!) after taking forever to come to a full stop and thus make an artificially huge line of traffic. Well, that’s about to change. Clinton and Valentine will be closed next year on January 2nd till April 6 for significant improvements, one of which includes a traffic signal (bye bye stop sign!). In addition, the road will be repaved and repainted (you may know it was typically pot hole ridden and had virtually no visible paint).
It will also be safer for pedestrians and cyclists, with the addition of sidewalks, turn lanes (this may create a proper buffer between cyclists and cars, as cyclists in this area have only one lane of the road to share with cars; there is no proper shoulder (it’s just dirt and bumpy as hell), street lights (Finally! West Fresno is notoriously dark in the more rural, less developed areas, which is Clinton and Valentine in a nutshell), storm drains, curbs, and gutters (this area is also prone to flooding), and curb ramps (so that challenged pedestrians don’t have to walk up a curb or so cyclists can easily get on/off the sidewalk). It’s never too late for improvements, and these are quite welcome, even though I have since moved out from this area. For the time being, it’s easy to get around the closure by either using shields or McKinley.
