North County Corridor environmental study delayed

A major milestone in the North County Corridor planning process for an expressway skirting Modesto, Riverbank and Oakdale has been delayed again, with public release of key documents in late September or early October and a public hearing expected in November.

A draft environmental study, years in the making and previously expected out in July, will feature reams of information, including detailed studies of how the road could affect people, farms and other businesses, depending on which specific route segments among several are chosen. After city and council leaders determine preferences, the state Department of Transportation would make a final route selection, perhaps in late 2016.

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

The $400 million, four-lane North County Corridor has evolved over several decades. Supporters look forward to a quicker, smoother east-west drive across much of the county, though 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, canceled a meeting scheduled for Aug. 19 and won’t meet until 4:30 p.m. Nov. 18 in the basement chamber at Tenth Street Place, 1010 10th St., Modesto.

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

This story was originally published August 8, 2015 at 2:26 PM with the headline "North County Corridor environmental study delayed."