It’s been more than 17 months since the city officially started work on a truck route study.

Now it may take even longer to bring the completed document before the City Council for possible adoption.

The council when they meet Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Civic Center is being asked to fund a health risk analysis and noise assessment for potential truck routes in the city.
There are three current truck routes in Manteca. Two of them — Lathrop Road and Moffat Boulevard — are standard truck routes.

The third truck route — 120 Bypass to South Main to Industrial Park Drive/Spreckels Avenue to Yosemite Avenue to Highway 99  — is a Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA)  route that allows trucks that exceed California length limits to accommodate interstate trucking.

The truck route plan in addition to identifying the establishment of legal truck routes going forward:

*recommends the city establish a truck impact fee to offset maintenance directly related to truck damage to streets. Damage along the Spreckels Avenue corridor — a legal truck route — is one example.

*examined the geometry of intersections of potential truck routes and identified needed improvements to widen or upgrade intersections where necessary.

Truck routes are designed to keep trucks off of city streets where their operation may be problematic. Ideally they steer them away from streets that aren’t designed to take the heavy pounding trucks have on pavement.

Pavement experts using research from the Federal Highway Administration estimate the projected impact on pavement of one fully loaded axle on a big rig truck is equal to more than 1,000 passenger cars. That said trucks pay significantly higher state road and fuel related taxes to pay for pavement work.

The pavement on Spreckels Avenue — one of the heaviest traveled streets for trucks in Manteca — has develop significant pavement issues after 17 years of truck movements. Spreckels Avenue is on the list of streets Manteca will address pavement issues on during the next several years.

 Trucks making deliveries to businesses that are not on an established truck route can legally do so on streets not designated as truck routes.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com