Manteca is at the cusp of an unprecedented commercial boom along the 120 Bypass corridor.

It wasn’t by happenstance.

What is happening was made possible by planning decisions and private sector investments that started in earnest 28 years ago designed to queue up both local and regional commercial — as evidenced by Bass Pro Shops, Living Spaces, and Costco.

It is no accident the regional heavy hitters were among the first to land given the strategic location in Manteca is at the heart of a 15-mile triangle with roughly 700,000 consumers in Tracy, Lathrop, Ripon, Stockton, and Modesto

But while all of the big announcements today involve concerns planning to locate along Atherton Drive — get ready for a national retail chain, a bank, and a popular fast food chain to officially join the 120 Bypass corridor rush in the coming months — the city and private sector are busy working on the transformation of the Highway 99 corridor.

“The Bypass is for commercial,” Manteca Councilman Mike Morowit said. “Highway 99 will drive jobs.”

Many of the same private sector concerns that shaped the area south of the 120 Bypass are involved with strategies that could see large business park job centers eventually surface from Austin Road in southeast Manteca to the area north of the future extension of Roth Road. And that area includes large swaths of land on both sides of Highway 99 north to French Camp Road.

Morowit, who serves with Mayor Gary Singh on the council’s economic development subcommittee, noted Manteca has a unique set of circumstances with:

*Two separate freeways.

*Two separate Union Pacific railroad main lines.

*Two separate intermodal facilities for train-truck freight movements, Union Pacific along Manteca’s western city limits and Santa Fe six miles to the northeast on Austin Road.

*The coming double tracking of the Union Pacific Fresno line initially from the Lathrop Wye to downtown Manteca and then farther south eventually to Merced.

*The emerging north Manteca business park/industrial park area is 3.5 miles from Stockton Metro Airport.

The unique ability of wedding rail with freeway access at a point midway between the Bay Area-Sacramento market has already prompted the private sector to explore a rail spur just north of Manteca near the Delicato Winery off the “local” tracks that run along French Camp Road out of Stockton into Escalon and beyond.

The Austin Road Business Park zoning in the southeast part of the city that is close to the UP main line is also a possibility for a rail spur.

That’s also the case for large parcels in the southeast quadrant of the Highway 99/French Camp Road interchange that borders the local line that runs along French Camp Road.

The area is not within the city limits, but is included in Manteca’s general plan as a logical future annexation to Manteca.

Key interchange work

& future major arterials

The two major city initiatives that can ultimately spur development of Highway 99 as an economic growth engine for jobs are in various stages of progress.

The most visible is the new replacement bridge for the Austin Road interchange that will be completed this year.

It replaces the 1955-era interchange that simply spanned the freeway with one that also will clear Moffat Boulevard and the railroad trucks.

This effectively takes two roadblocks out of the way of the envisioned 1,080-acre Austin Road Business Park — good freeway access and the elimination of dealing with extensive train movements.

The city contributed more than $4 million to make sure the overpass has four travel lanes instead of just the two it was replacing. The San Joaquin Council of Governments is the lead agency in the 99/120 Connector Project that includes the Austin Road interchange work.

Initially, the northbound on-ramp and southbound off-ramp won’t be replaced until the second phase. The next phase will also add a second transition lane from northbound Highway 99 to the westbound 120 Bypass.

The work will be completed in the next several years queuing up better traffic flow for autos and trucks going to and from southeast Manteca for near term development.

The city is now working with San Joaquin County to extend Roth Road to Highway 99 where Manteca is eventually targeting the construction of an interchange with Highway 99.

Roth Road is being designed as a “barrier”, if you will, with residential development to the south and business park/industrial to the north.

“It keeps homes and business parks separate,” Morowit said.

Morowit said the city’s zoning and general plan for future annexations calls for housing in northeast Manteca and southeast Manteca.

That said, the areas designated for business parks are situated to have minimum truck movements on city streets given the proximity to freeways.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com