Get ready for a summer of Airport Way closures and detours.
Everything from sewer trunk line work to road widening and pavement upgrades are lining up to make traveling Airport Way challenging at times this summer.
First up is a month-long closure of Airport Way from Crom Street to Yosemite Avenue from Monday, June 20, through July 22.
A 24/7 detour will be in effect for the duration of the closure.
The area is where sewer line work is being done as well as the widening of Airport Way in front of two new neighborhoods — the 99-home Yosemite Greens at the corner of Crom and Airport. Immediately south of that project a duplex neighborhood with 123 residences also will be built.
The detour route will likely send the bulk of the traffic down Union Road given it is the closest north-south street in Manteca. That would mean increased traffic on Louise Avenue and Yosemite Avenue.
Depending on how the detour is signed and whether motorists take a “short cut”, traffic could also increase significantly on Crom Street during the road closure of the heavily traveled corridor.
One of the two biggest issues are likely to be the large number of Amazon delivery vans that use Airport Way to reach the 120 Bypass on the way to and from customers in the Tracy and Modesto areas from the 24/7 delivery center on Louise Avenue.
The other is the rerouting of semi-trucks that travel to and from distribution centers on North Airport Way although Airport Way is not an adopted truck route.
The road closure has nothing to do with pavement improvement endeavors Manteca is pursuing on Airport Way between Woodward Avenue and Lovelace Road.
The city last month awarded a $2.9 million contact to George Reed Inc. for asphalt concrete grind, pavement overlay, pavement repair, traffic striping and Americans with Disabilities Act curb ramp improvements. That work is expected to be completed by next fall.
The city is using a mixed approach to the work meaning different levels of work will be done based on what pavement conditions call for along the corridor. The goal is to extend the life of the roadway as well as smooth out the ride while work is done on a longer range upgrade of the former county road.
The overall cost to bring road conditions up to standard as well as widen areas to four lanes as the municipal traffic circulation plan calls has been pegged at $130 million along the Airport Way corridor. That is in addition to at least $28 million to upgrade the Airport Way interchange with the 120 Bypass.
A chunk of the work will be done as property along the corridor is improved as it was done in front of the Amazon, 5.11 Tactical, and Lowe’s Home Improvement distribution centers on the uproar reaches of Airport Way.
Road widening will also occur later this year or in 2023 along Airport Way to the south of Louise Avenue when work starts on the 760-home Villa Ticino West neighborhood.
That will reduce the amount of money the city will need to come up with to do the work.
The work being done this summer will make driving Airport way smoother by addressing cracking pavement and potholes. The pavement, however, won’t look consistently the same due to the various levels of upgrades being done based on the condition of specific road segments
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
