Caltrans aims to improve traffic at Briggsmore interchange

Caltrans is expected to start work this week on a project to help southbound Highway 99 traffic flow during peak traffic at Modesto’s Briggsmore Avenue-Carpenter Road interchange.

The project includes building a roughly quarter-mile-long lane for drivers getting off the highway at the interchange and nearly doubling the length of the lane drivers use to get onto the highway to 300 feet.

When traffic is heavy, southbound drivers now have difficulty merging onto the highway and southbound vehicles trying to exit back up in the highway’s right lane, according to a California Department of Transportation news release. “Entering and exiting issues are further complicated by high truck volumes on SR-99,” according to the release.

Caltrans spokesman Rick Estrada said about 142,000 vehicles drive by the Briggsmore-Carpenter interchange daily, and commercial trucks account for 13.5 percent of the vehicles.

Crews are expected to work primarily Sundays through Thursdays from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., according to the release, but drivers can expect lane closures and 10-minute delays. The project is expected to be completed in May 2018. The project includes new drought-tolerant landscaping.

Crews also will rebuild the southbound offramp and part of the intersection on the Briggsmore-Carpenter overpass. The intersection improvements include making it easier for tractor-trailers to turn and mounting a closed-circuit camera so Caltrans can monitor traffic at the intersection and on the highway.

Granite Construction Co. of Watsonville has been hired to build the improvements for $5.1 million, according to the release.

Estrada said Caltrans is in the planning stages to improve the northbound on- and offramps at the Briggsmore-Carpenter interchange and the ramps in both directions at the Standiford Avenue-Beckwith Road interchange.

He said Caltrans is starting with the southbound portion of the Briggsmore-Carpenter interchange because it is a higher traffic safety concern.

This story was originally published April 15, 2017 at 2:51 PM with the headline "Caltrans aims to improve traffic at Briggsmore interchange."