It is clear that Manteca needs a “spine road” — a route away from Airport Way to get growing truck traffic to the 120 Bypass ultimately via the McKinley Avenue interchange that will break ground in the next year or so.
Such a spine road would meander through developing business parks such as CenterPoint where it connects with Roth Road and the proposed 4 million square feet planned by Exeter Property Group on land southwest of the Louise Avenue and Airport Way.
It’s a concept that has been championed by Councilman Gary Singh.
He may get a chance to push even harder for the spine road if CenterPoint Business Park appeals the Planning Commission’s approval Tuesday of a 486-space truck yard that they placed a restriction on the hours it could operate.
That could allow the spine road to be discussed and possibly solve a problem that CenterPoint may be creating for the city.
CenterPoint will extend the spine road known as Intermodal Way connecting to Roth Road to serve the proposed truck yard once Union Pacific Railroad allows it to be built across property they own. Everyone Tuesday admitted that may not happen any time soon — if ever. Complicating the issue is the fact the federal government has jurisdiction over railroads. When UP decided they wanted to expand their intermodal operations by 250 percent, they agreed to pay for an environmental impact report for San Joaquin County even though under federal law they were exempt from doing so.
Most of the noise, traffic and pollution concerns expressed by nearby residents at Tuesday’s commission meeting were the result of a plan to make the only entrance on a “temporary basis” to the 486-space truck yard from a private road extended to Airport Way complete with an intersection until such time the spine road was completed.
Why not simply require CenterPoint to build the spine road on their property by moving it 60 feet or so to the east?
And if that throws a monkey wrench into their plans, why not require them to go ahead and build another internal north-south road they have planned and have trucks use that until such time the spine road section on UP property is completed? Yes, trucks would have to make three 90-degree turns to do that but the intersection geometry is supposed to be designed to accommodate truck movements.
As far as extending a private road to Airport Way drop it so trucks would be forced to use the spine road. And when parcels develop south of Crothall Laundry require the private road that would tie into Daisywood Drive in an extension toward the spine road, require the interior intersection to be designed so trucks can’t access the spine road from Airport Way.
That way no one has to worry about monitoring as they’d be only one way in and one way out from the truck yard which would be the spine road.
Reducing safety walking
to Lincoln School for the
final four days of classes
There are a number of intersections along East Yosemite Avenue where the sidewalk and curbing need to be ripped out and replaced with improvements that are Americans with Disabilities Act complaint as part of the $2.8 million redo of the corridor that is now underway between Main Street and Cottage Avenue.
While it’s nice the city started the work finally, one has got to wonder whether they did so in a vacuum. On Tuesday the western crosswalk at the intersection of Yosemite and Powers avenues was closed as the opposite corners were ripped out. The crosswalk happens to be the No. 1 way that students from north of Yosemite Avenue that attend Lincoln School can safety cross the busy street given it is controlled by an intersection.
One would think the city would have insisted the contractor wait until the school year ended in three days to close down the crosswalk and instead work on another intersection that needed ADA improvements first.
It underscores the complaint some have that folks at city hall can be tone deaf at times to day-to-day life in Manteca.
Sometimes the city can’t win in this case but taking away the safest and most direct crossing for young elementary students during the last week of school definitely wasn’t the best possible move when it comes to safety given no issues would have been created if the work simply started four days later.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
