Wayfair — a 1.2 million square-foot Internet-based furniture and home goods distribution center — will soon become part of 120 Bypass commute gauntlet.
The facility that is now hiring as they gear up to open for business is the first of three 1 million square feet plus logistics building sites planned by CBRE Development for 203 acres at the junction of Interstate 5 and the 120 Bypass. Overall there are 11 building sites with 4.2 million square feet of industrial space.
That means there will be a lot of truck merging movements onto the 120 Bypass at Yosemite Avenue/Guthmiller Road just before the freeway flows into Interstate 5.
The developer has put up $8 million for interchange improvements to deal with three problematic issues:
uA short westbound merging area between the interchange and the northbound off ramp for Interstate 5 that will have most trucks trying to merge into lanes leading to southbound I-5 impeding those trying to head from the Bypass toward Stockton.
uThe need for eastbound trucks to slowdown to exit at Yosemite/Guthmiller after the contentious merge of southbound I-5 traffic to the westbound Bypass.
uThe issue of trucks needing to accelerate and merge onto the 120 Bypass.
General growth in Manteca and beyond in cities where Bay Area commuters reside along the Highway 99 corridor and those that travel East Highway 120 will be adding vehicle and truck traffic on the Bypass to move goods to stores. That is in addition to existing traffic including through truck traffic.
The business park anchored by Wayfair is changing the dynamics. It will put a large amount of high volume truck traffic onto the Bypass serving a popular Internet company that relies not just on trucks bringing stock items in but also shipping out to customers. The other two major logistics sites will likely create similar concerns. That is in addition to the rest of the business park.
The private sector is also pursuing development near the northeast quadrant of the interchange to McKinley Avenue.
Manteca could also be soon contribute high intensity distribution center truck traffic to the western end of the 120 Bypass.
Exeter Property Group seeks to build a business park designed to primarily serve logistics operations on 233 acres on the southwest corner of Louise Avenue and Airport Way. It is envisioned to be similar in size to the CRBE with more than 4 million square feet.
The working proposal is to allow a SJAA truck route up the Airport Way corridor as far north as Crom Street for truck access.
Efforts are being made by the city, led by Councilman Gary Singh, to put in place a north-south “spine road” between Airport Way and the railroad tracks to the west to run from Center Point to Yosemite Avenue to take truck traffic originating or traveling to current and future business parks in West Manteca off of Airport Way.
One proposal is to get truck traffic to use the McKinley Avenue interchange that is moving closer to ground breaking to access the 120 Bypass. They would use Yosemite Avenue west of Airport Way to reach McKinley Avenue.
That would mean there would be significant truck traffic merging onto and turning off the 120 Bypass at McKinley Avenue.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
