Pelandale Avenue and Highway 99 on ramp in Modesto, Calif., Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023.
aalfaro@modbee.com
After years of looking at Highway 99 construction as they enter the city, are Modestans going to get any lively beauty at the Pelandale overpass or the Highway 132 interchange?
That’s what one Modesto Bee reader asked our service journalist, who focuses on answering direct reader questions and helping our community navigate daily life.
Stanislaus County, Modesto, Caltrans and the Stanislaus Council of Governments (StanCOG) supported a project to improve the connections between Highway 99 and Highway 132, which was approved in 2018.
Now that construction of the new freeway is completed, the reader is asking: Is the city working with Caltrans to landscape the new interchange, or plant the terraces on the northeast corner of the Pelandale overpass on Highway 99?
Here’s what StanCOG said about the plans for the 132 interchange, and whether the city is going to add plants to the Pelandale overpass:
Will the Highway 132 interchange be landscaped?
The four-mile-long Highway 132 West project was initiated by StanCOG to increase capacity, provide congestion relief and enhance safety, according to Caltrans.
The project included extending a portion of Highway 132 by constructing a four-lane freeway from west of Dakota Avenue to east of Highway 99 at Needham Street in Modesto.
Only phase one of the project has been completed, said Tony Harris, StanCOG’s manager of strategic project delivery.
“There is a phase two that will ultimately complete additional connections to 99,” Harris said. “As part of that phase two project, there would be beautification and landscaping.”
Currently, motorists traveling northbound on 99 have to exit on Kansas Avenue to continue onto the new Highway 132 West. After phase two is complete, there will be a direct ramp from 99 to 132, Harris said.
StanCOG is working on the design of the next two phases, and Harris said all phases of the project are aimed to be finished in mid-2025.
The plans for the project originally included highway landscaping and irrigation in the drainage basin area east of Highway 99, said Skip Allum, a Caltrans spokesman.
The landscaping and irrigation would have been added for aesthetic purposes, he said, but were eliminated from the plans because of “major drought” and because the efforts would have been removed during the construction of the second phase.
The project is being done in phases as funding is allocated, Allum said.
Harris said StanCOG is working on cost estimates for the next phases.
Are there plans to beautify the Pelandale overpass?
In 2016, a new Pelandale interchange at the northwest entrance to the city replaced one built in 1970. The overpass was landscaped with dirt and rock but shows no signs of life other than the inhabitants of passing cars.
There are no current projects to add plants to the terraces, said Diana Ruiz-Del Re, a spokeswoman with the city of Modesto.
“During the construction of Pelandale, the drought forced significant changes to Caltrans’ standards for landscaping,” Ruiz-Del Re said. “All projects going forward have to be much more drought-tolerant.”
What do you want to know about life in Modesto? Ask our service journalism team your top-of-mind questions in the module below or email servicejournalists@modbee.com.
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Dominique Williams is a service journalism reporter at The Modesto Bee. She is a Ripon native and a graduate of Sacramento State.