On a cost per mile basis the most expensive roadway project Manteca has ever tried to tackle is the street that generates by far the most complaints when it comes to the quality of the driving surface — Airport Way.
It could cost $20 million ultimately to widen the 4,000-foot segment of Airport Way between Daniels Street and Yosemite Avenue to six lanes. That is the equivalent of $26.7 million a mile. And assuming the city is able to find the money to be able to complete the work by 2024, that doesn’t address two aggravating Airport Way issues for motorists:
uthe hands down worst washboard driving surface of a major arterial in Manteca along Airport Way from Yosemite Avenue to Louise Avenue.
the Airport Way and 120 Bypass interchange that many times during the week — including weekends — is a major traffic snafu.
The Manteca City Council tonight is scheduled to hear a staff report on work planned for Airport Way, the 100 to 300 blocks of North Main Street, and the overall street condition work assuming the council gets to the item before they opt to adjourn. It is near the end of the agenda but ahead of a report and discussion on parking along the 100 block of North Main in downtown that was pushed off to tonight’s 7 o’clock meeting after the council adjourned the Sept. 17 meeting before reaching it.
The estimate for the segment of Airport Way from Daniels to Yosemite includes the need to relocate more than two dozen PG&E power poles on both sides of the street including several higher voltage transmission lines. Four similar lines on Union Road — they are taller and handle lines that cross the freeway — are costing $4 million to relocate of which Manteca had to cover half the cost to move the interchange upgrade project forward. While those lines are likely not to be nearly expensive, the Airport Way has a major wild card that could make the Union Road power line relocation costs pale in comparison. There is a major transmission tower — it is part of the high voltage lines PG&E would shut down if certain conditions conducive to wildfires exist in the Sierra — that is within the needed right-of-way that may have to be relocated.
The ultimate design calls for three travel lanes in each direction, a raised median with turn lanes, bike lanes in both directions, sidewalks, buried utilities, and a bioswale — a linear channel that is roughly 15 feet wide — to collect storm runoff.
There are also dozens of property owners the city would need to obtain right-of-way from.
Airport Way 15 years ago wasn’t much more than a two-lane county road that had been annexed into the city. Traffic was primarily those going to and from homes in western Manteca to jobs or other destinations via the 120 Bypass. Then about 12 years ago Costco, the Stadium Retail Center, and Big League Dreams sports complex opened and traffic became heavy during non-commute hours. It is even heavier on weekends with people throughout Manteca and nearby communities traveling to the city’s second most robust retail area behind the commercial activity associated with Walmart and nearby retail concerns on South Main Street.
Truck traffic in recent years has started picking up due to new business parks and such even though Airport Way is not a designated truck route. All of that has led to a major deterioration of pavement.
The $20 million tab addresses nothing on Airport Way north of Yosemite Avenue.
What improvements are being made is when adjoining land is developed such at the CenterPoint Business Park. Developers are required to upgrade the streets bordering their development to the center line such as you see in front of Cothrall Laundry, 5.11 Tactical, and Penske Logistics (Lowe’s Home Improvement distribution center).
Plans call for eventually upgrading the two-lane bridge across the 120 Bypass and ramps to a diverging diamond interchange such as what is going in now at Union Road and the 120 Bypass. That upgrade will cost in excess of $25 million.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
