North County Corridor loans Highway 132 Bypass project $23 million

A Highway 132 Bypass west of Modesto is nearly ready to build, if leaders could scrape up enough money. Planning for the North County Corridor, also a major regional priority, isn’t as far along, although leaders long ago secured a promise from state officials for $91 million toward that expressway.

So transportation leaders on Wednesday agreed to loan part of the promised North County Corridor money – $23 million, to be exact – to Highway 132 in hopes of getting that project off the ground.

“It’s an opportunity to convert this paper money into real money,” said Matt Machado, Stanislaus County’s public works director.

In other news, leaders learned that the long-awaited public release of key environmental documents for the North County Corridor – expected on Friday – has been postponed yet again. The delay could raise costs and add months to the design schedule, leaders initially feared, but they said there is reason to hope for a quick resolution.

Both projects have been talked about for six decades, and both have made significant progress in recent years. Leaders have cobbled from various sources $59 million for Highway 132 but need $82 million for its two-lane first construction phase, leaving them $23 million short.

The $91 million reserved for the North County Corridor, planned to skirt Modesto, Riverbank and Oakdale, in fact was first promised to go to the Oakdale Bypass, a prior vision that morphed into the larger expressway. But that pot of money can’t be tapped until it’s ready for construction, and the road is still in the design phase.

The $23 million “loan” from the North County Corridor pot actually just allows leaders to approach the California Department of Transportation to compete against other regions for dwindling road construction dollars. Caltrans representative Ken Baxter told leaders of two local agencies Wednesday that the money swap strategy remains a long shot. But the Stanislaus Council of Governments and the North County Corridor Authority both unanimously agreed it’s worth a try.

“The first time (the idea) was brought to me, I was like, ‘What? No, I’m not sending North County Corridor money to 132,’ ” said Bill O’Brien, a Stanislaus County supervisor whose district includes Riverbank and Oakdale. “But 132 is ready to roll, and the North County Corridor is not quite there yet.”

Others seemed more hesitant, partly because all future road money from one state source coming to Stanislaus agencies – historically divided among the county and its nine cities – instead will go straight to the North County Corridor, until the loan is repaid.

Turlock Mayor Gary Soiseth, for example, voted for the money swap but said he expects others to return the favor in the future. O’Brien said all cities could make the same demand and urged representatives from throughout the county to continue standing united behind top priorities rather than diluting money.

Friday’s release of North County Corridor studies is canceled, as is a May 19 open house in Riverbank, because engineers and lawyers at Caltrans’ Sacramento headquarters recently balked while reviewing the studies, once promised to be out in summer 2015. Machado said his team had prepared documents under direction from Caltrans’ regional leadership, and changes requested by headquarters would require months of costly extra work without adding more value to the product.

“It’s extremely frustrating that the right hand of Caltrans doesn’t know what the left hand is doing,” O’Brien said, “and we’re the ones held hostage. It’s not right and it’s not fair.”

Machado said much of the problem was resolved this week, and Caltrans representative Samuel Jordan apologized.

“I just feel someone’s nitpicking,” said Oakdale Mayor Pat Paul. “We want to get it moving.”

The 18-mile North County Corridor is expected to cost up to $700 million.

A second phase of the Highway 132 Bypass, expanding to four lanes, would push its total price to $260 million.

Critics of both projects fear having to move homes and businesses and losing quality of life, while leaders look forward to smoother-flowing traffic.

This story was originally published April 20, 2016 at 10:52 PM with the headline "North County Corridor loans Highway 132 Bypass project $23 million."