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Hump days are numbered
Work will lower profile of Yosemite crossing Union
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The rise that motorists on Union Road have to transverse when crossing Yosemite Avenue will soon be reduced to a standard crown. - photo by HIME ROMERO
The Union Road “hump” is about to be cut down to size.

The Manteca City Council on Tuesday is expected to award a contract for $960,636 to Knife River Construction for pavement rehabilitation work along West Yosemite Avenue between Walnut Avenue and Winters Drive.

West Yosemite Avenue was originally Highway 120. It was first created with a concrete roadway in the 1920s. Over the years, asphalt layers have been added. Due to the way paving was layered over the years and the fact the base is concrete, the road has buckled and developed cracks.

The concrete highway underneath the pavement will be cracked plus the existing pavement grinded and then replaced with news asphalt and striped.

Over the years, the pavement build-up plus how the intersection was constructed has created a pronounced hump for through traffic on Union Road to cross at Yosemite Avenue. The work is expected to greatly reduce the profile of the hump.

The project is being paid for with bond money from the voter approved state bond known as Proposition 1B that provided funds for roadway rehabilitation throughout California including highways. State voters approved the $4.5 billion bond in November of 2006. The city must spend the money by June 30 or return it to the state.

During the past 15 years similar work has been done on Main Street from Northgate Drive to Moffat Boulevard and West Yosemite Avenue between Main and Walnut.

Sometime this summer Moffat Boulevard will undergo similar work. Main Street north of the railroad tracks as well as Moffat once was Highway 99. It too was built with a concrete base that had to be cracked to allow pavement to settle.