Jobs and not houses will drive the development of the 1,049-acre Austin Road Business Park.

The Manteca City Council has reaffirmed a previously adopted phasing plan for the massive project that puts all of the housing in two phases — the third phase  as well as the fifth and final phase.

The bulk of the 9,134 direct jobs are expected to materialize in the first, second and fourth phases.

The initial development of 238 acres of heavy industry, 24 acres of business/industrial/professional (BIP) uses and 18 acres of open space will take place in the extreme southern portion of the project about a mile from Ripon. The second phase consists of 41 acres of BIP plus land designated for commercial mixed use.

The third phase contains 315 acres of low density residential and open space. There are 108 acres of general commercial in the fourth phase.

The bulk of the housing in the project that ultimately is expected to accommodate 10,200 residents would be built in the final phase.

The initial phase of public improvements such as streets plus sewer, water, and storm pipe systems to provide access and service to the business park is expected to start this year. It will cover work on Austin Road from the railroad tracks south to the actual business park portion of the project.

Those improvements are in addition to work that will start with the railroad crossing on Austin Road near the Highway 99 interchange in the coming months.

The widening of the railroad crossing is part of $10.4 million in upfront improvements to the Highway 99 interchange at Austin Road as well as South Austin Road.

The timeline calls for modifications to the Highway 99/Austin Road interchange ramps to start early this year. Work on the railroad crossing will be a separate project as well the upgrading of South Austin Road to federal standards to accommodate 53-foot long truck trailers. Breaking the road work into three segments allows the work to proceed faster.

The interchange modifications include traffic signals at Austin and Moffat, the off ramps that connect to Moffat, as well as the Austin and freeway ramps on the northeast side. The traffic lights at Moffat and Austin will be tied into the railroad crossing much as they are at Industrial Park Drive/Spreckels Avenue and Moffat.

Moffat will be widened to four lanes between Austin and Woodward Avenue.

There also will be metering on the southbound onramp to Highway 99.