Swanson Road barely is a blip on the radar when it comes to the more than 200 miles of streets in Manteca.
It started as a driveway into a farm that has long since disappeared. The condition of the street makes the worst part of the Airport Way corridor as smooth as the autobahn by comparison.
Yet Swanson Road could play a critical role in making sure whether more than half of the city’s residents can count on their municipal sewer service operating properly as well as reducing future truck traffic on the Airport Way.
The city needs to put in a new North Manteca sewer trunk to replace an aging line that has a high risk of collapsing such as what happened last year on the sewer line segment along Union Road near the golf course and Louise Avenue. While that failure stopped short of creating serious public health issues, the deteriorating line that needs to be replaced is located at a critical location that would create much more detrimental consequences if it collapses. The replacement line is also being sized to accommodate growth.
At the same time Manteca is trying to put in place a “spine” road to move trucks to and from existing and planned business parks between Airport Way and the Union Pacific railroad tracks. Such a spine road would wind its way between existing and planned developments catering to distribution centers to allow trucks to reach Yosemite Avenue and then head west to McKinley Avenue where they would turn to travel to the interchange being built at McKinley and the 120 Bypass.
The biggest source of truck traffic would likely be the Exeter Business Park envisioned for the southwest corner of Louise Avenue and Airport Way. It could have 5 million square feet of space including three million square foot buildings for distribution rivaling the Mayfair distribution center along the 120 Bypass in Lathrop.
The spine road would take truck traffic — except for those making deliveries at stores — off of Airport Way north of the 120 Bypass.
The options include:
*placing the sewer trunk line and truck route down Swanson Road.
*placing the sewer trunk line and truck route down the proposed extension of Milo Candini Drive north of Yosemite Avenue.
*putting the sewer trunk line down Swanson Road and the truck route down the future extension of Milo Candini Drive.
The city has already completed the design, environmental clearance and right of way acquisition for the Swanson Road trunk line alignment at a cost of $940,000. It is ready to start construction as early as March 2020. In addition six property owners along Swanson have already paid the city for sewer and water line stubs. The construction of the sewer line would impact the residents along the street.
It would take up to six months to obtain right-of-way, secure environmental clearance and complete the design work for the Mino Candini alignment. If that option was pursued the earliest construction could start would be September 2020.There would be no construction issues with existing residents along the Milo Candini alignment. However, there could be costs associated with dewatering given the alignment is closer to the groundwater contamination site that is adjacent to the intersection of Airport Way and Yosemite avenue.
With everything taken into account, the Swanson Road route for the sewer line would cost $13 million and the Milo Candini alignment $12.5 million when all is said and done.
The council meets at 7 p.m. tonight at the Civic Center, 1001 W. Center St.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
