North County Corridor expressway debates on horizon

A major milestone in the North County Corridor planning process for an expressway skirting Modesto, Riverbank and Oakdale will be pushed from July to August.

That’s when key environmental documents will become public, with reams of studies on how the road could affect people, farms and other businesses, depending on which specific route segments among several are chosen.

The August release will kick off a period of debate among residents, property owners and officials with the three cities and Stanislaus County. Each agency will be asked for route preferences in the fall, and the state Department of Transportation would make a final route selection about a year later.

The month delay gives Caltrans more time for legal and quality-control review, said Matt Machado, the county’s public works director.

“Everyone believes that going through with a fine-tooth comb is time well-spent,” he said.

The studies will be unveiled at an Aug. 19 meeting, with a formal public hearing expected sometime in September. Because of the heavy volume of information – hundreds, if not thousands, of pages – the county plans to distribute up to 300 computer thumb drives to interested people, as well as paper copies in libraries. Some portions are expected to be posted online.

High interest might be expected in studies on relocating homes and businesses – at the government’s expense – and on assessing “community impact,” or pinpointing expected changes in quality of life.

The $400 million, four-lane North County Corridor, in various forms, has been several decades in the making. Supporters look forward to a quicker, smoother east-west drive across much of the county, although leaders have downsized an initial dream of linking Highway 108 east of Oakdale all the way to Highway 99 in Salida. Revisions in recent years downgraded the project from a freeway to an expressway that will stop near Tully Road north of Modesto.

The North County Corridor is expected to resemble a freeway in the western stretch, with no stopping – thanks to legitimate interchanges – at McHenry Avenue, Coffee and Oakdale roads and Roselle Avenue. But motorists would confront signal lights at several interchanges from Riverbank to Oakdale, except where leaders envision roundabouts.

Engineers want such traffic circles where the North County Corridor ties into Highway 108, whether near Stearns Road or Wamble Road.

Roundabouts also would help the expressway hook up with new access roads from private property to the south of either eastern terminus, one at South Stearns Road if the Stearns option is chosen, and the other at Smith Road if leaders opt for the Wamble route. Collisions at roundabouts tend to deliver glancing blows rather than deadly head-on crashes more common to traditional intersections.

Critics of the North County Corridor decry losing homes, businesses and the country atmosphere. Some say the road will disrupt farming operations, and others detest roundabouts.

The North County Corridor Authority, composed of leaders from the county, Modesto, Riverbank and Oakdale, will hear a project update at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in the basement chamber at Tenth Street Place, 1010 10th St., Modesto. The Aug. 19 meeting will be held at the same time and place.

For more information, go to www.stancounty.com/publicworks/ncc-main.shtm.

This story was originally published June 13, 2015 at 4:50 PM with the headline "North County Corridor expressway debates on horizon."