It’s really happening: Council gives final OK to Highway 132 reroute west from Modesto
A Bay Area contractor got approval Tuesday night to reroute part of Highway 132 west from Modesto, an idea that dates to the 1950s.
Bay Cities Paving & Grading Inc. of Concord will get $92.05 million to build 3.5 miles of new road between Dakota Road and Needham Avenue.
The Modesto City Council voted 7-0 for the contract. Construction will start in November and take about three years, said a report to the council from Jaylen French, director of community and economic development.
The new segment will run about a half-mile north of Maze Boulevard, the current 132. This part of Maze has numerous homes, businesses and other uses that produce traffic.
Bay Cities was the lowest of six bidders last month. The project is a two-lane road without cross traffic for about three miles between Needham Street and Dakota Road, plus a half-mile of new pavement south on Dakota to the part of Maze that will remain Highway 132.
A second phase, expected by 2028, would bring the new highway segment to four lanes at an estimated cost of $132 million.
A third phase, still in initial planning, could extend the new alignment as far west as Gates Road. The current highway ends at Interstate 580.
Funding for the first phase comes from numerous county, state and federal programs. They include Measure L, a sales tax increase approved by county voters in 2016.
The new road will run just south of Kansas Avenue and have overpasses or underpasses at Rosemore Avenue, Carpenter Road, Emerald Avenue and Highway 99.
The California Department of Transportation started buying right of way for the new alignment in 1958. The land has sat vacant as the project stalled.
Caltrans also created three berms for the new highway segment with soil tainted with barium from FMC Corp., which had a chemical plant nearby. The contract calls for containing the material in the new fill and pavement. Several neighbors opposed that idea.
This story was originally published September 25, 2019 at 3:35 PM.
