By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Manteca plans plenty of road work during spring, summer
Placeholder Image
Get ready for some major road work.

The Manteca City Council Tuesday authorized California Pavement Maintenance Co. to proceed with a project that will place seal slurry over 22 lane miles of streets in Manteca during the coming weeks. That represents just under a ninth of all city streets based on lane miles.

There are two areas in Manteca where the work will be done.

One is the area bounded by Mission Ridge Drive on the south, Union Road on the west, Yosemite Avenue and the Union Pacific tracks on the north and Main Street on the east.

The other is bounded by Alameda Street on the north, Cottage Avenue on the east, Yosemite Avenue on the south and Washington Street/Fremont Avenue on the west.

The $576,948 project is being funded with restricted funds from the statewide Traffic Congestion Relief and Maintenance Project. It can only be used on road work and traffic -related projects.

The seal slurry - which extends the life of pavement - isn’t the only road work being done this spring and summer.

The city opened bids Wednesday that will turn two of Manteca’s roughest stretches of streets into much smoother traveling surfaces.

East Yosemite Avenue between Cottage Avenue and Commerce Drive as well as Moffat Boulevard will undergo $1.9 million in pavement upgrades.

Moffat Boulevard will be the more expensive of the two. Work will entail cracking and then sealing the old concrete pavement that was originally laid in the 1920s when Moffat Boulevard served as part of the Highway 99 route through Manteca. Previous segments of concrete pavement that had been overlaid with asphalt in the ensuing years have already been addressed on portions of North Main Street as well as segments of West Yosemite Avenue that served as old Highway 120.

Once the concrete is cracked and sealed it will no longer buckle. The existing pavement will be grinded and then new asphalt and striping put in place.

The $1.9 million is coming from Manteca’s share of local road funds and involves money that must be spent specifically on road improvements and can’t be used to help balance the general fund.
A report issued in 2009 noted municipal streets are in danger of slipping in overall quality unless municipal expenditures for pavement maintenance are kicked up by $800,000 a year.

A survey of city streets shows that the 191 total centerline miles of municipal roadways have a pavement condition index of 75.  That means, on average, they’ve got 75 percent of their life expectancy left. That compares to the Bay Area average of 70 percent. Manteca’s better position has a lot to do with the fact most roads here are newer.

Manteca is now spending an average of $500,000 a year on road maintenance projects. But the pavement management study shows that amount needs to be kicked up to $1.3 million annually each year through 2012 just to maintain the current level of quality.

There is a misconception that higher gas prices means more gas taxes are rolling into cities and the state for road maintenance.  The gas tax is stagnant. On top of that, the state has been raiding it regularly to try and balance state budgets.

The result is that for actual significant pavement beyond work covering the basic cost of crews and materials to do routine street maintenance gas tax accounts for only a 20th of what is actually spent for work on existing roads in Manteca during the past 10 years.

Gas tax is used by cities to cover the ongoing cost of crews plus performing work such as filling in potholes. For long-range maintenance, gas tax accounted for $269,907 of the tab during the past decade. Measure K — the half-cent sales tax put in place by San Joaquin County voters for transportation needs — led the way with $2,046,642. The rest came from five other sources.

The study showed that the existing 191 miles of Manteca roads have a replacement value of $79.8 million.

The 191-centerline miles include 32 miles of arterials, 26 miles of collectors, and 133 miles of collector streets.