The days of weed and barren ground at Manteca’s “front door” are numbered.
The City Council Tuesday is expected to award a $315,425 contract to Watkins & Bortolussi to landscape the Highway 99 and Yosemite Avenue (East Highway 120) interchange.
The project is being funded with Measure K funds set aside specifically for landscaping transportation projects. Measure K is a countywide half cent sales tax voters approved for transit and road work.
After the improvements are in place, the firm will handle landscaping maintenance for 750 days. Once the nearly two-year period ends, the city’s annual cost for upkeep is estimated at $10,000.
While work actually starts on the landscaping after more than two years of delays, design work will start on landscaping for the Highway 120 Bypass and Highway 99 interchange. City leaders were able to secure unused Measure K funds for that project as well.
When completed it will mark the first time ever that there has been landscaping at the Yosemite Avenue interchange that has existed since 1955.
Besides shrubs and trees, it will include a low-profile monument sign in the island median on Yosemite Avenue reading “Manteca.”
The project was ready to go forward early this summer but the state budget crisis pulled the relatively small portion of the funding Caltrans had to cover their share of the work. Manteca was able to secure unused Measure K landscaping funds for that interchange and the Highway 120 Bypass/99 interchange because they could match the money while other cities couldn’t. Manteca’s matching funds are coming from funds that restrict it for certain purposes and can’t be used to balance the general fund.
Landscaping the interchanges will also reduce perennial fire dangers.
Manteca’s last fire fatality was during a grass fire at the Highway 120 and Highway 99 interchange when thick smoke disorientated an elderly driver and he drove into the burning dry grass where his passenger died.
The City Council Tuesday is expected to award a $315,425 contract to Watkins & Bortolussi to landscape the Highway 99 and Yosemite Avenue (East Highway 120) interchange.
The project is being funded with Measure K funds set aside specifically for landscaping transportation projects. Measure K is a countywide half cent sales tax voters approved for transit and road work.
After the improvements are in place, the firm will handle landscaping maintenance for 750 days. Once the nearly two-year period ends, the city’s annual cost for upkeep is estimated at $10,000.
While work actually starts on the landscaping after more than two years of delays, design work will start on landscaping for the Highway 120 Bypass and Highway 99 interchange. City leaders were able to secure unused Measure K funds for that project as well.
When completed it will mark the first time ever that there has been landscaping at the Yosemite Avenue interchange that has existed since 1955.
Besides shrubs and trees, it will include a low-profile monument sign in the island median on Yosemite Avenue reading “Manteca.”
The project was ready to go forward early this summer but the state budget crisis pulled the relatively small portion of the funding Caltrans had to cover their share of the work. Manteca was able to secure unused Measure K landscaping funds for that interchange and the Highway 120 Bypass/99 interchange because they could match the money while other cities couldn’t. Manteca’s matching funds are coming from funds that restrict it for certain purposes and can’t be used to balance the general fund.
Landscaping the interchanges will also reduce perennial fire dangers.
Manteca’s last fire fatality was during a grass fire at the Highway 120 and Highway 99 interchange when thick smoke disorientated an elderly driver and he drove into the burning dry grass where his passenger died.
