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WORST MANTECA STREET
Manteca council expected to seek bids to reconstruct section of Lathrop Road
bad lathrop road

The worst 2,500 feet of pavement in Manteca is nine months away from being the best.

The Manteca City Council is expected to follow through on a promise made just two months ago to have a pot-hole riddled and cracked section of Lathrop Road from Airport Way to a point 200 feet east of London Avenue that engineers rated the worst roadway in Manteca replaced before the next school year starts in August. The council meets tonight at 7’oclock at the Civic Center, 1001 W. Center St.

The $1.4 million project will be done by cannibalizing the 2019 annual pavement maintenance funds — money used in past years to seal or apply slurry coatings to extend the life of neighborhood streets — to cover the cost of the roadway reconstruction project.

 

City still has $39.7M of

pressing street needs

that aren’t funded

The need to shift funds and the fact there is an additional $38.7 million identified street needs where pavement conditions are so bad they require removal of asphalt and reconstruction, full depth reclamation going down to the base, or 2-inch overlays with dig outs but little or no available money to do the work underscores a position emphasized over and over again by Ben Cantu during his 15 months so far as mayor — if residents want better streets and such new taxes are needed.

The city is hamstrung by money. Between gas tax and Measure K sales tax receipts the city has around $2 million to spend on street maintenance on an annual basis. Almost all of that has been poured into neighborhood streets. There are state and federal grants available from time-to-time that Manteca can apply for work on major streets that meet specific conditions. Such grants are how the bulk of the $4.9 million to do the recently completed Main Street work and the Yosemite Avenue work was obtained. The problem is the grants are not a sure thing plus thousands of cities are competing for the money.

 If the Manteca council were to take all of the money it receives every year for road work and apply to the 30 worst sections of streets in Manteca, it would siphon all such funds and then more for the next 20 plus years providing there is absolutely no inflation.

 

Four possible ways

to fund better streets

There are only four basic ways the city can generate more money for streets beyond trying their luck at securing grant competitions that is almost like relying on winning the lottery.

They are:
*Cannibalizing other parts of the general fund budget that goes to police and fire, parks and recreation, or general government.

*Pursue a communitywide Mello-Roos district as Cantu has suggested.

*Raising the local sales tax or imposing a parcel tax.

*Requiring all new developments to have a community facilities district that lumps street maintenance include overlays and such in specific neighborhoods with park upkeep, landscape maintenance, and paying for street light energy use as well as their upkeep.

A recent survey the city conducted to gauge support for a possible bond measure to pay for an $80 million community recreation complex anchored by a community gym and aquatics center showed little stomach to increase taxes for such a purpose. It did show, however, the public might be receptive to support new taxes if they were targeted specifically for additional police services and street work.

There has been no movement on the council to address either additional street funding in any form expect for Cantu’s repeated effort to draw attention to the need for the city to do something if it wants to have better streets on terms of pavement conditions.

Lathrop Road — along with Airport Way, Woodward Avenue, and Austin Road — were all built originally as county roads and were not built for heavy traffic or extensive use by trucks. As a result the roads that are now city arterials are in the worst shape of all streets in Manteca.

The most pressing

need for street work

The top 10 streets for removal and reconstruction costing $17.8 million plus in descending order are as follows:

*1. Lathrop from Airport Way to east of London Avenue

*2. Main Street from south of Atherton Drive to north of Woodward Avenue

*3. Yosemite Avenue from the city limits at the railroad tracks to east of Airport Way.

*4. Woodward Avenue from Atherton Drive to the railroads tracks.

*5. Airport Way from Lathrop Road to the railroad tracks

*6. Airport Way from Louise Avenue to Yosemite Avenue

*7. Austin Road from Yosemite Avenue to north of Highway 99

*8. Woodward Avenue from South Main Street to Van Ryn Avenue

*9. Austin Road from north of Sandra Street to south of Jeane Road

*10, Airport Way from Atherton Drive to south of the 120 Bypass

The top 13 streets that require full depth reclamation costing $21.5 million plus in descending order are:

*1. Springtime Estates streets

*2. Mayors Park streets

*3 Shasta Park streets

*4. Industrial Park Drive streets

*5. Franciscan Village streets

*6. Union West streets

*7. Cedar Glen streets

*8. New Horizons streets

*9. Greenview Estates streets

*10.  Spring Meadows streets

*11. Magna Terra Estates streets

*12. Hildebrand Addition streets

*13. Sherwood Forest streets

The top 7 streets that require 2 inch overlays with dig outs costing $1.3 million plus in descending order are:

*1. Swanson Road from Yosemite Avenue to the end of the street

*2. Zinfandel Lane from Chenin Blanc Drive to the end of the street

*3. Northgate Drive from Airport Way to Bolton Lane

*4. Norman Drive from Hutchings Street to Dyer Avenue

*5. Trinity Street end to end

*6. Tidewater Bike Path from Lathrop Road to Industrial Park Drive

*7. Mission Ridge Drive from Grouse Way to Partridge Lane