"This is a major project, it's not very often new interchanges are built on the 99 corridor in the Central Valley," Tulare City Manager Marc Mondell said at the July 24 ribbon-cutting for the International Agri-Center Interchange. At the same event, Caltrans District 6 Director Michael Navarro said work on Highway 99 in the South Valley wasn't finished. "We do have a project that will be breaking ground in spring of 2027 that's gonna improve the 99 on this segment from 4 to 6 lanes as well as reconstruct the intersection at Paige Avenue next," he told ABC30.
Taken together, those two quotes explain the new Commercial Avenue ramp. It's the first half of a bigger rebuild of the freeway on Tulare's south side. If the spring 2027 start holds, south Tulare gets about one fall and one winter with the new ramp open and Paige Avenue left alone. World Ag Expo falls in the middle of that stretch.
Forty years of talk, about six months of quiet
The timeline helps explain why the ramp opening feels bigger than one more on-ramp.
- The 1980s. Former Tulare City Manager Lynn Dredge remembers the discussions going back this far. "It's hard to put into words, how happy this is to me and how important it is for this community," he said at the ribbon-cutting.
- 2006. Tulare County voters approved Measure R, the local transportation sales tax that became the project's largest funding source.
- 2023. Construction began. Navarro put the full run from environmental review through construction at "probably about 7-8 years."
- July 24, 2026. Ribbon-cutting at the Agri-Center, 4500 S. Laspina St.
- Friday afternoon, Sept. 18, 2026. The date Caltrans set for opening to traffic, after Security Paving finished permanent striping, signs, delineators, pedestrian barricades, fencing and erosion control on the new slopes.
- Feb. 9–11, 2027. World Ag Expo.
- Spring 2027. Caltrans plans to break ground on widening 99 to six lanes and rebuilding the Paige Avenue interchange.
After four decades of planning, the stretch between steps five and seven is short. That's the window Tulare drivers have right now.
Who paid for it
The Sun-Gazette's opening announcement broke out the project's $79.9 million cost.
| Source | Amount | Share of $79.9M |
|---|---|---|
| Tulare County Measure R | $26.5 million | About 33% |
| State Regional Improvement Program | $18.9 million | About 24% |
| Federal BUILD and TIGER grants | $16 million | About 20% |
| Private funding | $9.5 million | About 12% |
| Senate Bill 1 | $9 million | About 11% |
The county's own sales tax covered about a third of the project, more than any state or federal source on its own. Tulare County Association of Governments, which applied for the federal BUILD grant, played a key role in securing the funding. "Someone said thousands of people worked on it, I think that's accurate," TCAG Executive Director Ted Smalley said. On top of the money, a local family donated the land the interchange sits on, and multiple speakers at the ribbon-cutting mentioned that contribution.
What actually changes on the map
For years, the usual way to reach the Agri-Center and Tulare Golf Course from the freeway was the Paige Avenue exit, then south on Laspina. Shoppers headed to Tulare Outlets used Prosperity and Hillman. That's how a 2014 Visalia Times-Delta access guide laid it out. When TCAG made the case for the new interchange, it pointed to worsening operations at Paige and the need for better Agri-Center access. It put the new access point at Commercial Avenue, about 0.8 mile south of the Paige overcrossing.
TCAG's project fact sheet describes the design this way:
- New ramps at Commercial Avenue and Highway 99, with Commercial serving as the route from K Street to the freeway.
- One auxiliary lane in each direction between Commercial and Paige, for merging traffic between the two interchanges.
- Bike lanes and sidewalks on Commercial between K Street and Laspina.
- Paige's existing ramps stay open. TCAG's grant application says so directly.
These are the planned layouts from TCAG's documents. No published report on the as-built ramps or on traffic changes since opening has come out yet. In practice, Paige no longer has to carry every car headed for the southern edge of town. Agri-Center assistant general manager Megan Lausten told the Sun-Gazette the project will make the center more accessible, and that it created an overpass and highway access for the grounds.
The fall calendar that gets the new ramp first
World Ag Expo will be the headline test, but the Agri-Center grounds and Tulare Golf Course have events on the calendar before then.
| Date | Event | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Sat., Oct. 3, 8 a.m.–noon | Tulare District Band Review | International Agri-Center parking lot |
| Sun., Oct. 11, 10 a.m.–3:30 p.m. | It's a Neighborhood Thing Vendor Fair, by INT Events | International Agri-Center Arbor |
| Fri., Oct. 16, 7 a.m. registration, 8 a.m. shotgun | Teeing Up Agriculture Golf Tournament, by Tulare County Farm Bureau | Tulare Golf Course |
| Nov. 20–22 | Fall Classic Barrel Race | Farm Credit Dairy Center |
Event details and registration are on the International Agri-Center events page and the Tulare County Farm Bureau site. All four events land well before Feb. 9, so they'll be the first crowds to use the new ramp. ABC30 reported that the interchange is expected to improve traffic flow especially during World Ag Expo. Expo runs Feb. 9–11, 2027, and it will be the first time the ramp handles the crowd it was built for.
Then Paige goes back under construction
The timing matters most here. The next Caltrans project covers the same segment, widening 99 from four lanes to six and rebuilding the Paige Avenue intersection. Navarro said it will break ground in spring 2027. If that date holds, the California Antique Farm Equipment Show on April 16–17, 2027 could land early in the construction season.
Caltrans hasn't published lane closures, detours or a phasing plan for the Paige rebuild in anything we found. The geography already makes one point clear, though. When Paige construction starts, south Tulare will have a second freeway access point 0.8 mile away that didn't exist during any earlier work on this stretch. If you learn the Commercial route this winter, you'll be ready to use it in the spring.
The city sees the corridor as more than a traffic fix. Tulare's economic development pages describe the interchange and street extension as a way to open south Tulare to commercial and industrial development. One idea under study is a Business Park/Inland Port near the southwest side of the interchange. City staff have recommended the site, but it remains an exploratory proposal, not an approved project. For now, there's no confirmed retail or industrial construction underway along Commercial Avenue.
Supervisor Pete Vander Poel III summed up the July ceremony this way: "It's everyone working together to advance this county and this area forward." For drivers, the ramp was scheduled to open Sept. 18, Expo traffic arrives Feb. 9, and Caltrans plans to start the Paige rebuild in spring 2027.
If you're curious what the Commercial Avenue corridor and the coming Paige rebuild could mean for south Tulare, whether you live off Laspina or just head that way for Expo, we're happy to talk it through. The Shawn Team follows these projects because they're part of the town we work in. Get in Touch whenever you want a local read on it.
