San Joaquin County is developing a long-range plan for future improvements along the Airport Way corridor from French Camp Road to the county line at the San Joaquin River south of Manteca.

The initial community workshop takes place on Thursday, Feb. 12, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Cornerstone Community Church, 10948 South Airport Way.

The open-house workshop will allow participants to learn about the project as well as share their experiences traveling along Airport Way.

In doing so, it will help shape future improvements along the corridor.

County planners note Airport Way plays a vital role in the region, connecting neighborhoods, farms, businesses, and the Stockton Metropolitan Airport.

It is why the county wants to hear directly from the community about safety, traffic, truck travel, and future mobility options.

The workshop is structured in such a manner that people can drop at any time during the 90-minute gathering.

The Board of Supervisors in September awarded a $570,609 contract to basically lay the groundwork for increasing capacity of the Airport Way corridor from Roth Road in Manteca to the Stockton Metro Airport in Stockton.

Increasing the capacity of the 1.3 mile stretch of Airport Way is the latest step in deliberate moves by San Joaquin County along with the cities of Manteca, Lathrop, and Stockton to step up a decade of success so far in luring more jobs.

Airport Way is the emerging backbone of what could end up being the Northern San Joaquin Valley’s mega-employment center.

It serves not just the airport and existing business parks and industrial uses surrounding it, but thousands of acres tagged for future business parks.

It also ties directly in with existing distribution centers in Manteca — Amazon, 5.11 Tactical, and Lowe’s (Penske Logistics) — plus a large swath of area generally north of Lovelace Road where the city wants to pursue business park developments in upcoming annexations.

Lathrop also is tied into the mega-employment center, especially if plans for converting the former Sharpe Depot in the coming decades into an “inland container depot” are implemented for the Port of Oakland.

The concept is to avoid Bay Area congestion from impeding the movement of goods by moving containers in and out of the port by rail to Sharpe where they would be picked up by truckers.

Given Sharpe’s proximity to Interstate 5 and Highway 99 — as well as close access to Interstate 80 — it can speed up the movement of goods up and down the coast as well as into Nevada and the nearby states.

At the heart of the mega jobs center would be three other key elements:

*The Union Pacific Railroad intermodal facility on Roth Road sandwiched between Manteca and Lathrop.

*Air cargo movement through Stockton Metro Airport.

*The Santa Fe Railroad intermodal facility on Austin Road.

In terms of creating jobs for the region beyond trucking, having the intermodal yards and airport as well as the only Canada-to-Mexico route on the Pacific Coast plus Highway 99 that is considered California’s Main Street for moving farm crops and goods, would foster a rich and robust goods movement hub that has already been drawing firms.

That would include distribution centers as well as repacking and assembly concerns.

The close proximity to rail — by which most goods are transported long distances in the country — means truck trips to business park style concerns are extremely short.

That reduces time and cost.

The lure would not be as effective, though, if it was not for the location.

Stockton-Manteca-Lathrop are within an hour of the heart of San Jose, San Francisco, and Sacramento.

It is also as centrally located as you can be for goods movement in the NorCal Metroplex that is home to more than 18 million consumers.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com