Removing the most high profile tourniquet on a major Manteca roadway will cost more than $2 million.

That’s the price tag for converting a half a mile of North Main Street between Yosemite Avenue and Alameda Street from two to four through travel lanes through downtown and the central business district.

Possible configurations will be presented to the Manteca City Council when they meet Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Civic Center, 1001 W. Center St.

One option is for curbside travel lanes in each direction to be 12 feet wide and the inside lanes 11 feet.  The second option is for 11-foot curb lanes and 10-foot inside lane along with a continuous middle turn lane. The second option to accommodate five lanes would require narrowing the sidewalks to five feet. Both configurations eliminate on-street parking as well as the much maligned bulb outs in the 100 block of North Main. 

The current configuration has three lanes — 11-foot travel lanes in each direction plus an 11-foot continuous turn lane — as well as 8-foot wide area for parking on each side of the street.

The previous council directed staff in April 2016 to remove the bulb outs. Staff came back with a proposal to accommodate the council’s request that changed the 100 block into two south bound lanes, one north bound and a continuous turn lane with 5-foot bicycle lanes and no on-street parking saying it would cost $1 million to do the work.

Twenty-one months the later when staff was proposing tying the bulb removal and reconfiguration of the 100 block to the just completed Main Street work from Yosemite avenue to Atherton Drive, Councilman Gary Singh convinced council colleagues not to proceed with the work at that time. He pointed out the council would spend $1 million and then six or so years later have to return to the same block and spend even more money to place four lanes through that block as well as from Center Street to Alameda Street to accommodate traffic due to continued growth.

City crews then removed the most troublesome bulbs in the 100 block to improve traffic flow somewhat.

Delaying the 100 block reconfiguration and coupling it with altering the 200 and 300 blocks is an example of what elected officials of past and current councils have been clamoring for — doing things right the first time.

Once the work is completed, Main Street would have four lanes of through traffic all the way from Lathrop Road to the 120 Bypass.

The City Council meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Manteca Civic Center, 1001 W. Center St.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com