Widening project aims to reduce traffic on Highway 99, Highway 120 connector in Manteca
MANTECA - If you're one of over 30,000 super commuters who hit the road every day in San Joaquin County, you probably crossed over from Highway 120 onto Highway 99.
Lots of drivers there know with the connector down to just one lane between the two major highways, it bottles up.
Now, a major project is aiming to widen the connector and make it easier for commuters.
The traffic can start to build as early as 3 p.m. with people going east on Highway 120, meeting all of those people going south on Highway 99.
It does get really chaotic on the connector, something some people are fed up with.
"It's a no-brainer. It needs to happen," said Ed Stockton.
Stockton was filling up for gas in Manteca, on his way through the Highway 120 to 99 connector that is soon going to be expanded.
"There's accidents that happen in that area, people trying to get across and move back and forth, so from a safety perspective this is absolute," he said.
This new project, led by the San Joaquin Council of Governments (SJCOG), is using local tax, state and federal dollars, and even COVID relief money to expand the connector going from Highway 120 east onto Highway 99.
The project will add a lane to southbound Highway 99 and add on and off ramps placed along major streets in Manteca.
"There are over 31,000 super commuters from San Joaquin County," Stockton Mayor Kevin J. Lincoln said. "Every single one of those residents that commute to the Bay Area, they're benefiting from that."
Lincoln was one of several other mayors at the groundbreaking Wednesday morning.
The project will focus on local traffic too, adding an overpass for locals on Austin Road where people routinely get stuck waiting at the railroad tracks.
"This was important not just for me and the city of Manteca but also the whole region," said Manteca Mayor Gary Singh.
Singh knows how important the highway is, and says this project is a long time coming, with Manteca's population exploding in recent years.
"When it was built we were about 20-30,000 people in the city, today we're 90,000 plus," Singh said. "We are the affordable housing for the Bay and due to that, our growth has come and sometimes our infrastructure has lacked. I don't feel the growth is going to stop just because of the demand."
The project is expected to be completed by the summer of 2026.
"The community is growing and we need more express to get to and from," Stockton said. "Plus it will bring more money to organized labor."
Some neighbors in Manteca say that they don't like the idea of this project. They want to see Manteca remain small and don't want to see congestion from even more construction on 99.