This stretch of road, starting between Drytown and Amador City, and ending on Sutter Hill will certainly change the business life in Sutter Creek and Amador City, the two towns that get bypassed. For years these burgs have lived mostly off of visiting tourist trade. Those tourist dollars will become even more important now. Very few new people will find these quaint, historic gold-rush delights by accident any more. How this will affect the daily life is still up in the air. Being off of the main road will slow down the flow of convenience stoppers, people that did not expressly come to these towns, but the lessening of that traffic and the fact that everyone that walks into a shop in these towns is there on purpose could make for a richer marketplace and more boutique stylings, read higher prices, and fancier shops. We will just have to see.

Sutter Creek is arguably the most desirable town in the county, It has a more upscale feel than the rustic smaller towns like Fiddletown, Drytown, and Amador City, but it is still in commuter range of Sacramento, and in fact has a great public transit commuter bus that runs early enough to make it to the State Capitol by 8:00 am. and hits Sutter Creek around 6:20 p.m. with a 5:00 p.m. Sacramento departure. A mid-day run will get you down to the 65th Street bus/light-rail hub around noon. Ione and Comanche are growing into bedroom communities with commutes in the 50 minuet range to both Sacramento and Stockton. Jackson has the County seat and a bit more industry and services, including the hospital, and the Jackson Rancheria Casino, the second largest employer in the county. 

The new road opened the day before yesterday and will help to alleviate some of Amador County's growing pains. The planned development in Sutter Creek some 1300 homes and I believe 600 room resort will actually be on the other side of the bypass from what will soon be "Old Town Sutter Creek". Now that will change things. All of Amador County Is changing, Ione is looking for a bypass, to help with the wild growth in that area. Comanche is getting a new well to end the building moratorium, and Jackson is struggling with the temptation of a new Home Depot anchored shopping center below Kennedy Mine.