If you’re driving in or around the Stonebridge neighborhood, you better pay attention.
Stop signs are coming.
On Monday the Lathrop City Council voted unanimously to add stop signs at the intersection of Havenwood and Castlewood Avenues – located near Joseph Widmer Elementary School – to slow the speed of traffic and alleviate any collision concerns from homeowners who have seen several near-misses with people, sometimes students, walking through the neighborhood.
But it isn’t the only stop signs that the council approved on Monday night.
In the council referral section of the meeting – where council can take immediate action without the item being placed on the agenda as long as all of the members are adequately informed of the subject, and an immediate decision is needed – the council voted to install stop signs at the intersection of Harlan Road and Slate Street, which will have an immediate impact on the heavily traveled Harlan Road corridor.
According to Mayor Sonny Dhaliwal, the decision to act on the matter was necessary because of the number of accidents from vehicles turning left onto Slate Street as vehicles fly down Harlan Road. Those making a blind left turn off of Slate onto Harlan are also vulnerable to traffic that is either traveling too fast, or not paying attention.
“We made an improvement by adding a turn lane, but adding a stop sign at that intersection will absolutely improve public safety at that location,” Dhaliwal said. “It’s something that has been needed for a long time.”
It’s the second time in as many months that the Lathrop City Council has taken the step of using traffic calming measures along the Harlan Road corridor to improve the overall public safety of motorists.
Last month the council voted unanimously to allow the expenditure of $300,000 in Measure C funds to put a stoplight at the intersection of Harlan Road and Stonebridge Lane. The approval for the funding was granted by the independent Measure C Oversight Committee – which has final say on all city projects involving the money from the one-cent sales tax increase that was approved by voted in November of 2012.
Residents have approached the council before about doing something about the pass-through between Louise Avenue and Lathrop Road that parallels I-5 near the Slate and Stonebridge access points – alleging that traffic drives too fast through the area and that near misses are common.

To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.