Eight major roadway projects have been identified by Manteca municipal staff as pressing.

The City Council when they meet tonight at 6 p.m. will be asked to prioritize the order they want them to be addressed.

Each project could easily exceed $1 million while some will be substantially more expensive than others.

With a finite amount of money available on an annual basis for major road work, the priority they are given likely means somewhere between one and three will take place in the next several years.

The eight projects are:

*Yosemite Avenue west of Airport Way to the tracks along the city’s western city limits.

*Yosemite Avenue from Airport Way to Union Road.

*Woodward Avenue from Main Street to Pillsbury Road.

*Mission Ridge Drive from Union Road to Tahoe Street.

*Alameda Street from Main Street or Cottage Avenue.

*Lathrop Road from Airport Way to western city limits and London Avenue to Union Road.

*Main Street from Yosemite Avenue to Alameda Street.

*Northgate Drive from Main Street to Airport Way.

The challenges of maintaining streets requires significant investments and is an ongoing challenge that never ends.

Louise Avenue, as an example, 10 years ago had a new seal coat applied between Airport Way and Main Street as part of a federal grant that added bike lanes and a median.

That same segment of road is now in the City of Manteca’s  street projects queue for minor repairs sometime in the 2026 to 2028 horizon to address developing issues and prolong the life of the pavement.

It reflects a simple fact.

Asphalt has a finite life.

On average, asphalt lasts 18 to 25 years.

To obtain that lifetime — and to extend it — routine seal coating is needed, cracks need to be sealed, chip and seal work needs to happen, and ultimately pavement overlays are needed.

The lifetime of asphalt is a crap shoot of sorts involving a number of factors: The existence or thickness of a base, traffic volume and weight loads, as well as climate.

Manteca, as of 2022, had 265.4 lane miles of roadway to maintain.

If stretched by one lane width, it would run from Manteca down Highway 99 to a point 17 miles south of Bakersfield after it merged with Interstate 5.

As a result, streets work will never “be done” in Manteca when it comes to maintaining a drive-able surface.

The City Council when they meet tonight at 6 p.m. will receive an annual update on the pavement maintenance program.

It includes four projects currently under construction: the Shasta Park area, Wawona Street from Main Street to Union Road, Edison Street from Garden Gate Drive to the Shasta Park Area, and Locust Avenue from Wawona Street to Mission Ridge Drive.

There are two other active projects engineering is prepping to go out to bid.

One is Yosemite Avenue from Union Road to Willow Avenue including bike lanes and pedestrian safety improvements targets to be constructed in 2026.

The other is pre-design work for widening Airport Way from Wawona Street to Drain 5 north of Yosemite Avenue that will use PG&E set aside funds for undergrounding power lines.

There are three pavement projects that will be done in house by the public works department.

*Spreckels Avenue from Norman Drive to Yosemite Avenue in the fiscal year starting July 1, 2026.

*Louise Avenue from Airport Way to Main Street in the 2026-2028 horizon.

*Industrial Park Drive from Main Street to Moffat Boulevard in the 2026-2028 horizon.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com