The pressure is literally building for Manteca to break ground on the long promised McKinley Avenue/120 Bypass interchange.
Grading is expected to start in the next few weeks on the second of five new neighborhoods that will add 3,908 homes southwest and south of the proposed interchange.
Without the interchange in place that means the housing that will add roughly 12,000 residents will need to use the already congested Airport Way interchange.
It will bring the number of interchanges on the nearly 7-mile 120 Bypass to five when Yosemite Avenue in Lathrop that accesses a major distribution business park anchored by Wayfair is included.
The council last week approved a request for the developers of the 319-home Denali neighborhood to start site work ahead of the final map being approved. It features lots ranging from 5,000 to 16,000 square feet.
At the same meeting the council addressed PG&E easement issues regarding the interchange project. The interchange project has already jumped through a number of environmental hoops including removing from the project site the protected California tiger salamanders and the near threatened western spadefoot toad.
The city has also acquired the required right of way and demolished various buildings. They have much but not all of the money needed to build the interchange expected to cost more than $30 million.
The interchange will also open up more than 100 acres in Manteca for development in the city’s family entertainment zone anchored by Great Wolf and Big League Dreams. It will also provide access to a major employment center Lathrop has planned on the west side of McKinley north of the 120 Bypass.
It is being designed as the city’s first partial cloverleaf. But in order to save money the city is opting to build the inner ramp loops at a later date.
That means the initial construction will have all left turns from McKinley Avenue to 120 Bypass onramps go through signalized intersections just as they currently do at the Airport, Union, and Main interchanges. When the loops are completed northbound McKinley Avenue traffic will be able to get onto westbound 120 without going through a traffic signal as would southbound McKinley to eastbound 120.
It will include a separated bike path underneath the 120 Bypass that eventually will connect with the Atherton Drive bike path to provide access to Big League Dreams and the envisioned family entertainment zone.
Ultimately it will be a link in a separated bicycle pathway that loops the city going along McKinley Avenue north to connect with a path that cuts behind Del Webb at Woodbridge that crosses Union Road and ties into the Tidewater Bikeway. The Tidewater then heads south and ties in with the Atherton Drive Bikeway via Industrial Park Drive and Van Ryn Avenue.
The McKinley Avenue interchange is also part of the long-range circulation plan for Manteca south of the 120 Bypass where more than 60 percent of the city’s population is expected to be by 2040.
Once the interchange is in place, it would be possible for Great Wolf indoor waterpark resort to exercise an option they have with the city to buy more land to accommodate another 200 hotel rooms. Great Wolf opened this year with 500 rooms
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
