The first roundabout on a major Manteca street as well as the biggest subdivision ever built east of Highway 99 is moving closer to breaking ground.
The Manteca City Council has given Trumark Communities the OK to allow work to start on an off-site sewer forced main relocation as well as make improvements required by the South San Joaquin Irrigation District prior to the final map being recorded.
It will allow the Bay Area builder to do work necessary to allow the first homes to be built as early of spring 2017 as part of the 122-acre project west of Cottage Avenue on the north side of Louise Avenue and east of Highway 99.
The gated community will have 492 homes. It will also involve constructing a roundabout on Louise Avenue about midway between the Highway 99 overcrossing and Cottage Avenue where the main entrance to the subdivision will align with the existing Felice Way that accesses the 99-home Rodoni Estates to the south.
The basic functional design will be similar to the roundabout on four-lane 11th Street just west of Interstate 5 where it intersects with West Gantline Road/Kasson Road on the way to Tracy.  Two lanes of eastbound and westbound Louise will wrap around the landscaped roundabout. At the same time Felice Way will have one travel lane in each direction feed into the roundabout. Typically roundabouts have yield signs and not stop signs.
In order to make to work, Louise Avenue will swing slightly to the north to accommodate the roundabout.
Pedestrian crossings will be away from the roundabout on Louise Avenue as well as on the entrance road to the development that aligns with Felice Way.
The roundabout is in lieu of placing traffic signals at the intersection with the entrance that was originally approved as Shadowbrook Estates.
Roundabouts —or traffic circles — are now viewed by the city as a way of addressing four major traffic concerns including how to:
uimprove the safety of pedestrians especially crossing at intersections adjacent to neighborhood parks and schools.
ukeep traffic moving and avoid costly traffic signals where collector streets meet and — in some cases — where an arterial and collector street cross.
ureduce traffic speed.
uimprove air quality by eliminating stop signs which in turn reduces increased air pollution created by stop and go movements.
Manteca already has three roundabouts located within a block north of the Woodward Avenue corridor east of South Main Street. Two are at the edge of Tesoro Park and a future park site while the other is much larger with an acre park in the middle of  Buena Vista Drive north of Woodward Avenue. There is a fourth semi-roundabout on East Woodward Road but it only has plastic markers and uses stop signs.
Among the features of the project are:
The neighborhood park that anyone in Manteca can use will sit next to a clubhouse and swimming pool that features outdoor and indoor kitchens that only Shadowbrook residents can access. There will also be a small amphitheater.
A homeowners association will maintain all street lighting, the clubhouse and the neighborhood park. They will also be part of a community facilities district to maintain the perimeter landscaping.
The neighborhood will include a number of executive-style homes on lots up to 20,400 square feet.
There will be a decorative 13-foot high masonry wall along the Highway 99 freeway corridor.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com