The power of a partial penny is helping make Yosemite Avenue a smoother ride.

Mayor Gary Singh — with the quick response of the city’s engineering staff — was able to make it possible for Manteca to use $669,750 in Measure Q sales tax to leverage $5.7 million in unclaimed federal funds to resurface West Yosemite Avenue from Walnut Avenue to the city limits near the railroad tracks serving as the Manteca-Lathrop city limits.

Passage of the three-quarter cent, 20-year sales tax has generated funding that is allowing the City of Manteca to come up with the required 11.47 percent local match to secure the money.

Had it not been for passage of the three-quarter cent sales tax in November 2024 and Singh’s efforts as the city’s representative on the San Joaquin Council of Governments, the city would not have been able to secure the federal funds after other jurisdictions in the county passed on them.

“We’ve never done that much work on a major arterial at one time in Manteca,” Councilman Mike Morowit said. “The road work we are putting together is nothing like the city has done before.”

At $6.3 million, it is definitely the most expensive — and longest — upgrade ever of an existing arterial in Manteca.

The work wouldn’t have happened until the 2030 to 2033 time frame without snaring the federal funds that would have been returned to Washington, D.C.

Now the work will be completed in 2027.

That means by the end of 2027, Manteca will have upgraded Yosemite Avenue pavement from Cottage Avenue/Spreckels Avenue all the way to the western city limits since 2018.

The segment of Yosemite west of Airport Way hasn’t had significant work since the early 1980s. Prior to that, the road was controlled by Caltrans as it was the Highway 120 route through Manteca before the 120 Bypass was built.

How Manteca secured the funding underscores three key points that Morowit has made repeatedly:

*significantly large amounts of time is required of council members representing the city on outside agency boards to effectively represent the interests of city residents.

*the city needs to have money to go after state and federal grants as almost all involve local funding matches.

*the council is committed to leveraging Measure Q receipts to secure significant more money for the benefit of city residents.

The federal funding not only moved up the city’s timetable to work on the Yosemite segment from Airport Way to the railroad tracks by the wastewater treatment plant by a number of years, but Measure Q also allowed additional work that is now being wrapped up on Yosemite between Walnut Avenue and downtown.

That project includes replacing aging and failing water lines, ADA ramps at intersection, bike lanes, new pavement, and striping.

That would will be finished this fall

Singh said the city is hoping to find funds that other jurisdictions aren’t financially positioned to obtain to make improvements to aging segments of Union Road.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com