First detour starts on Highway 132 rerouting west from Modesto. It will last a while
The first detour began Tuesday for the rerouting of Highway 132 west from Modesto.
Part of Rosemore Avenue will be closed through August 2021 so an underpass for the new route can be built, the city announced.
The closure runs from just south of Kansas Avenue to just north of Elm Avenue. The detour includes Kansas, Carpenter Road, Maze Boulevard and Dakota Avenue.
The project will take about three miles of the state highway off Maze Boulevard and move it to just south of Kansas. The new route will be two lanes and a median without cross traffic from Dakota to the Needham Street bridge downtown.
Construction started in December and is scheduled to take about three years.
The project dates to the 1950s, when the California Department of Transportation started buying right of way. That land includes soil containing barium from the former FMC chemical plant in the area. The soil is being relocated under the new roadbed and to other nearby locations, to the dismay of neighbors who wanted it removed entirely.
Bay Cities Paving & Grading Inc. of Concord is building the road on a $92.05 million contract. The funding comes from several local, state and federal sources.
A second phase, expected by 2028, will widen the new highway segment to four lanes. It eventually could stretch as far west as Gates Road.
Updates on the current construction are at www.stateroute132.com.
