Manteca is waiting on word from Caltrans that the new interchange the state designed for Yosemite Avenue and Highway 99 some 20 years after federal laws for truck trailers changed so they can proceed with improvements necessary to avoid truckers accessing Spreckels Park from getting tickets.
The interchange – completed just four years ago after numerous design delays by Caltrans – currently doesn’t have a turn radius on off-ramps adequate enough to allow 65-foot-long combined tractor and trailers or a set of double trailers up to 75 feet. That is the maximum standard established by the federal Surface Transportation Association Act that became law in 1982.
Manteca Public Works Director Mark Houghton said Caltrans is optimistic that simple restriping will bring the interchange into line with federal law for longer trucks. Caltrans is expected to give approval for the longer trucks to use the Main Street and Highway 120 Bypass interchange as well.
If both get the OK, Manteca will then proceed with reworking the corners on both DuPont Court and Phoenix Drive where they intersect Spreckels Avenue. There is money set aside in the redevelopment agency budget for the work. Houghton said the work could be done in early 2010 once clearance is gotten from Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol that a truck route for the longer trucks is feasible going from Yosemite & Highway 99 down Yosemite, turning onto Spreckels/Industrial Park Drive to Main Street and back to the state highway system at Main & the 120 Bypass.
Acting on concerns expressed by trucking firms about safe right-hand turns in previous years, the city reworked the right turns from South Main to Industrial Park Drive and westbound Moffat onto Spreckels Avenue.
Houghton said the city is also seeking approval for longer trucks to use designated routes leaving the Union Road interchange on the Highway 120 Bypass to access the Promenade Shops at Orchard Valley as well as Airport Way at Highway 120 to access Costco and the rest of that retail development.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, e-mail dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
