Crumbling sound walls, aging overcrossings, and weed-infested views greet motorists passing through Manteca on Highway 99.

The freeway has been two lanes since mid-1950s while Manteca has grown 11-fold and vehicle traffic has soared pushing the 100,000 daily trip mark.

All of that will change by the end of 2014.

That’s when the $250 million Highway 99 widening project covering 13 miles from Arch Road by the Stockton Metro Airport and the 120 Bypass is targeted for completion.

Caltrans will provide a project update during Tuesday’s Manteca City Council meeting at the Civic Center, 1001 W. Center St., at 7 p.m.

The construction is expected to involve noise from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., require periodic night work, require occasional detours that will generate increased traffic on those routes, reduce lanes for might work and result in temporary closures of local roads around the freeway project.

Caltrans will provide seven-day advanced warning signage of detours and closures. They also will have electronic newsletters, project web page, a construction hotline, and media outreach with traffic reports.

What the project entails is:

• replacing existing sound walls with modern 8-foot high masonry walls.

• adding new sound walls along Frontage Road that runs along Raymus Village and the Southland Mobile Home Park along the east side of Highway 99 at Lathrop Road.

• widening Highway 99 from four to six lanes with the new lanes going where the existing median is now located.

• placing a concrete barrier down the freeway similar to the one in Ripon.

• eliminating the North Main Street flyover and the access ramps near the Stockton Regional Soccer Complex.

• replacing the Highway 99 bridge over French Camp Road while redesigning the existing ramps to make them safer.

• building a new interchange at Lathrop Road complete with a four-lane overcrossing. The bridge will have an upgraded design along with Tidewater-style street lights. The interchange will also be landscaped.

• widening North Main from two to four lanes from Northgate Drive to Lathrop Road.

• shifting Frontage Road on the northwest quadrant of the Lathrop Road interchange to the west so it runs into Crestwood Avenue.

• creating a southbound off ramp that brings five lanes into the Lathrop Road intersection with two turning west, one east and two straight into Main Street.

• widening Lathrop Road to four lanes from Crestwood to a point east of the freeway.

• moving the Frontage Road on the east side to a point farther away from the interchange.

 • landscaping along the freeway through Manteca.

When all is said and done motorists in the near future will see a “new” look while driving through Manteca including landscaping from the 120 Bypass north to just beyond Lathrop Road.