Twenty years ago, Airport Way — except for a few select spots — was still a county road as it made its way through Manteca.

There were no tract homes or commercial south of the 120 Bypass.

The Stadium Retail Center and Costco did not exist.

Nor did Daniels Street west of Airport Way, Big League Dreams, Rotten Robbie’s, Taco Bell, Staybridge Suites, Sizzler, McDonald’s, the car wash, or the Tesla supercharger station.

And the stretch from Wawona Street to a point just south of the golf course was basically just like it is today with the exception of the new dialysis center and the Mobil/Circle K convenience store on the northern sides of Airport Way’s intersection with Yosemite Avenue.

The looks of the corridor north of Wawona to Waterfall Way is about to change.

The City Council on Tuesday is being asked to retain Mark Thomas & Company to develop plans, specifications and an estimate as part of a $1,961,563 contract.

The project — likely to go to bid later this year — will bury PG&E power lines that run along both sides of Airport Way.

That portion of the project will be paid for — or at least mostly covered by — $6.7 million in funds PG&E collected from ratepayers to bury lines that predates the current wildfire “hardening” effort that sent up electric bills by 15 percent at the start of 2025 to cover the first phase of that endeavor.

The city currently has $2.5 million set aside for Airport Way work that was left over when work was completed nearly four years ago to address the most egregious pavement sections.

Additional funding that will be required has yet to be identified.

The project, at a minimum, will bury the power lines, secure right-of-way needed to eventually accommodate two travel lanes in each direction, and initially widen the pavement so that there will be a travel lane in each direction with a continuous left turn lane that may be broken up by medians.

The city is also currently working on preliminary design with environmental work next to convert the Airport Way interchange of the 120 Bypass into four lanes.

It will be a diverging diamond interchange like the one in place a mile to the west at Union Road.

The city has also started initial design work for creating a four lane Main Street diverging diamond interchange.

The City Council meets Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Manteca Civic Center, 1001 W. Center St.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com