Traffic at the intersection of Louise and McKinley Avenues is going to flow a lot differently once the City of Lathrop is done with its project to overhaul the confluence of the two busy thoroughfares on the city’s eastern edge.

Last month the Lathrop City Council approved a contract with Knife River Construction that will allow for the long-planned overhaul of the intersection – including dedicated left turn lanes for traffic, and a configuration that will allow for a wider of variety of traffic, including STAA trucks, to use the intersection.

The nearly $3 million price tag authorized by the Lathrop City Council includes a contingency in the event of cost overruns, and still puts it at the cheapest of the five bids that the city received for the project – which ranged from Knife River’s approximately $2.7 million bid to the more than $3.6 million bid that was submitted by United Pavement Maintenance.

Purchasing of the equipment necessary to complete the work was already done by city staff back in March, and Knife River will be tasked with installing the equipment for the new intersection – including new traffic signals and the poles that they mount to.

Out of the nearly $3 million that Lathrop plans to spend on the project, $400,000 of that funding will come from federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) funds. The city will be allocating just over $1.1 million in funding from the General Plan Street Reserves Fund and the $400,000 in grant funding that has been housed in the Local Transportation Fund.

Caltrans has formally authorized the use of federal funding for the project – which is expected to improve traffic circulation and move more vehicles through the area as Lathrop continues to grow.

For more information, or to obtain a copy of the council agenda or view the video from last month’s meeting, visit the City of Lathrop’s website at www.ci.lathrop.ca.us.

To contact Bulletin reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.