It hit Julie Minton one day when she was walking along Van Ryn Avenue approaching the undercrossing of the 120 Bypass.
“I noticed all of the traffic slowing down and backing up,” she said.
It dawned on the Manteca resident then that no one was doing anything about the carnage on the 120 Bypass. It seemed people had become numb to it given traffic slowing down and backing up as it nears the Highway 99 interchange is an everyday occurrence, seven days a week.
She found out that the California Highway and Caltrans were both aware of the 120 Bypass claim to fame as a deadly stretch of freeway the mile before the eastbound lanes approach Highway 99 where at least one accident happens every two to three days.
Minton, who was surprised to find no elected official championing any effort to try and push for safety and/or capacity improvements for the 120 Bypass sooner than later, launched a Facebook page dubbed “Highway 120 East at Highway 99.”
The site has 830 likes. Most tell of how they either avoid the deadly stretch or drive it on high alert.
There have been nine deaths and more than 410 injuries in the past 70 months on the stretch of the 120 Bypass as it approaches “Deadman’s Curve.” That’s a reference to the transition lane to southbound Highway 99 toward Ripon and Modesto that causes traffic to slow down and back up. And as many who post on Minton’s Facebook page note, it is exacerbated by impatient drivers or those that aren’t familiar with the stretch who cut over at the last second forcing traffic in the right hand lane to brake. That leads to a “slinky effect” that every few days or so leads to a rear-end collision.
A snapshot of just one year — 2013 — shows more than 220 accidents occurred along the 6.2-mile 120 Bypass with the overwhelming majority between the midpoint between the Union Road and Main Street interchanges and the Highway 99 transition.
“It would seem warning people not familiar with the areas sooner about what lane to be such as to go to Yosemite would help,” Minton said.
Caltrans is currently working on three initiatives.
uAn Automatic Warning System: This will include a changeable message board specifically for traffic slowdowns. It would include four monitoring stations and a closed circuit TV station. It is designed to increase awareness of real time traffic conditions ahead and allow motorists to adjust top traffic congestion. Caltrans is targeting environmental clearance next spring with construction in fall of 2016.
uMore connector lanes: The San Joaquin Council of Governments is working with Caltrans to add connector lanes from the 120 Bypass to Highway 99. The goal is to have plans and documents in place to capture future transportation funding with a Measure K match. The goal is hopefully to have work done by 2019.
uWidening 120 Bypass to six lanes: SJCOG has also added a project to its list of targeted future endeavors to widen the 120 Bypass to six lanes at a cost of $95 million. The earliest that could happen currently is in 2040.
Minton is concerned that without a major local push as was done with the original 120 Bypass project and a subsequent follow up to put crash barriers down the middle and eventually make it four lanes that those target dates will slip farther into the future.
Manteca leaders rallied community members in the 1970s to get the original bypass built at least 10 to 15 years ahead of what the state’s plans called for. A similar effort working with SJCOG and using Measure K funds got the bypass widened to four lanes seven years ahead of schedule. The project used all Measure K money with the state eventually reimbursing the one cent transportation tax account for their share several years later.
Minton noted that virtually everyone in Manteca knows of someone who has been in a 120 Bypass crash or has driven by the carnage.
“There needs to be a push to make it safer,” Minton said of the 120 Bypass.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
