Benefits, possible harms collide in freeway report

The struggle between roadway efficiency and property rights comes into focus with newly released environmental documents on the future North County Corridor.

Traffic delays for people in Salida, north Modesto, Riverbank and Oakdale could increase 500 percent if a $1.2 billion freeway is not built across north Stanislaus County, the draft report says.

But the expressway could force out 670 residents in the way. And companies with about 266 workers might have to move as well, the study says, although a final decision on the actual route is not expected for two more years.

"Like anything else, everyone wants progress but nobody wants it here," said Mike Beauchemin, superintendent of Bambacigno Steel Co. The North County Corridor might ignore the plant's 55-year history at McHenry and Claribel avenues and claim its trio of industrial buildings with up to 75 workers, according to the freeway's draft environmental impact report.

The study also cites as potential targets the Boyett gas station and minimart across the street. "Auto sales and motel" businesses are mentioned at the same intersection, presumably the Oasis Palms Apartments and a storefront formerly housing a used auto business on another corner.

Also in the expressway's crosshairs are two mobile home parks near Kiernan Avenue and its Claribel Road extension with a combined 95 trailers, plus century-old "rural homesteads" along Coffee Road and 40- and 50-year-old houses near Coffee and Claribel. All told, 124 homes, 37 farm buildings, 27 industrial buildings and nine stores could be in jeopardy, according to the study's human environment-community impact assessment.

And that's just for the freeway's first phase, or east portion, from McHenry to Highway 108 six miles east of Oakdale, which could break ground in five years. The west leg, from McHenry to Highway 99 at Salida's Hammett Road interchange, should be done by 2030, officials say.

Expected to alleviate traffic

"If everything develops the way cities and the county believe it will, traffic could be extremely bad" without the North County Corridor, said Gail Miller, senior environmental planner with the California Department of Transportation. "It will be tough to get from one town to another. Hopefully, (the freeway) will alleviate that."

Officials will hold town hall meetings next month to gather input that will be incorporated into a final environmental document that could take two years. People can submit opinions by mail or e-mail before the comment period closes Nov. 6.

Hundreds of comments received at previous public meetings — many caustic, from frightened people along the expressway's potential route — do not appear in the newly released, 1,431-page draft report. They were used to develop the draft report, Miller said, while comments received from now on, from any angle, will make it into the official record.

"What this (draft) document is trying to do is to plan for the future," Miller said Thursday. "I know a lot of people are confused about what the route adoption process is. We've tried to relieve anxiety by educating them."

Besides improving travel times, a smooth-flowing North County Corridor should make travel safer, the draft report says. The rate of accidents on roads from north Modesto to Oakdale is about 35 percent higher than the statewide average for comparable roads, and 54 percent of them are rear-end accidents, the study says.

Most people closely watching the project's progress have been more concerned about the price they might pay in quality of life. The draft study addresses that, too, pinpointing many of the homes and businesses that might have to go.