Manteca’s most well-traveled pavement is about to get a major facelift.

Work will start next week on landscaping the Highway 99 and 120 Bypass interchange where 110,000 vehicles pass through each day based on a 2006 Caltrans traffic count.

“This is going to be a big thing for improving Manteca’s image,” noted AKF Development partner Bill Filios who ranks it right up with Bass Pro Shops, Orchard Valley, and Big League Dreams on being able to improve Manteca’s image on a regional basis.

The work is part of a $1.4 million contract awarded to landscape the interchanges on Highway 99 at the 120 Bypass as well as Yosemite Avenue.

That is in addition to the $2.3 million landscaping project that will stretch from Austin Road to French Camp Road on the Highway 99 corridor and from Highway 99 to Interstate 5 along the 120 Bypass corridors.

The two federal stimulus funded projects represent the biggest landscaping venture every undertaken at one time along freeway corridors in the Northern San Joaquin Valley.

“The impression people get of Manteca passing through on Highway 99 or the 120 Bypass isn’t that great right now,” Filios said. “I hope that the money they have will be enough to get the job done.”
The Highway 99 and 120 Bypass interchange will include 1,700 trees to bring the number of trees that will ultimately be planted along freeway corridors passing through Manteca to 7,100. To put that in perspective, there are 7,600 city-maintained street trees in all of Manteca plus 8,801 trees in the city’s 50 parks that includes the golf course and along the Tidewater Bikeway system.

When it reaches maturity, the 120 Bypass/Highway 99 interchange landscaping will resemble woodlands.

The design is a departure for Caltrans when it comes to landscaping along state freeways.

The planting scheme calls for taller trees in the back with heights scaling downward towards the roadway. The evergreen trees picked for the back are similar to the ones you’ll find along Center Street and the west side of Morezone Field.

Others in the mixture includes several oak trees, western red buds, Chinese pistache, and several others.

They are being planted with chicken wire to protect roots from gophers.

At the same time mulch will be placed in such a manner to serve as a fire break to slow down any fires to allowing firefighters a chance to knock down grass fires hopefully in time before they can damage trees. Designing fire breaks coupled with the fact mature woodlands would minimize the growth of weeds plus block winds could ultimately mean that fires which are a routine occurrence on all quadrants of the interchange during the dry season will be substantially reduced.

The $2.3 million project will involve over 5,400 trees, 3,900 shrubs, and 28,700 cubic yards of mulch and 500,000 square feet of hydro seed for grass as well as irrigation systems to support the plantings. The project also includes planting of vines along sound walls in a bid to soften the look and reduce the need for graffiti abatement.

In each case - as well as work being done at Yosemite Avenue and the Highway 99 interchange - the contractors will maintain the landscaping for three years.