California 4 - Crosstown Freeway Western Extension (Stockton)

[andy3175]

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140402/A_NEWS/404020319/-1/a_biz

Construction to extend the towering Crosstown Freeway farther west to the Port of Stockton will soon begin, heralded in at a cold and windy groundbreaking ceremony for the $140 million road construction project on Tuesday (4/1/14).

When finished, the extended freeway will take the 4,400 daily trucks that thunder through the Boggs Tract neighborhood and lift them onto a 35-foot-high and nearly mile-long flyover leading directly to the port, officials said.

It's paid for with two voter-approved ballot measures, the statewide transportation bond, Proposition B, and San Joaquin County's own 1/2-cent sales tax, Measure K. Each contributed $70 million to the project.

The Crosstown Freeway, or Highway 4, connects Highway 99 and Interstate 5 over downtown Stockton. Traffic not heading along I-5 comes back to earth at Fresno Avenue in Boggs Tract. The new twin bridges, with two lanes apiece, will take traffic over Fresno Avenue and over a railroad line to Navy Drive, which will be turned into a four-lane road with auxiliary lanes.

http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist10/environmental/projects/sr4crosstown/docs/01crosstownded020110.pdf
(2010 Draft Environmental Impact Report, includes map, 8.3 MB)

The California Department of Transportation, in cooperation with the San Joaquin
Council of Governments, proposes to extend the ramps that currently terminate at
Fresno Avenue to Navy Drive by constructing about a mile of elevated structure
spanning the Boggs Tract neighborhood and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe
Railway corridor. Elevated viaduct structures, ranging in height from 24 to 55 feet
from ground level, would be supported by embankments from north of Navy Drive to
just south of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway corridor. An elevated viaduct
structure supported by concrete columns is proposed to span the railway corridor
starting on the south side of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway corridor and
ending just west of Del Norte Street. For the section of proposed roadway the spans
Boggs Tract (from just west of Del Norte Street to just east of Fresno Avenue) two
structural alternatives are being proposed. These structural options are identified as
Alternatives 3A and 3B in this document. Alternative 3A proposes twin viaducts
supported by columns while Alternative 3B proposes an elevated structure atop an
earthen embankment supported by two retaining walls. Finally, on the east end of the
project, the roadway would be supported by earthen embankments with grade to
match existing State Route 4 at the Garfield Street Overhead.
Navy Drive would also be slightly realigned and widened between Fresno Avenue
and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway underpass.

[ARMOURERERIC]

Are there any long range plans for this project to tie in with the CA 4 widening out of the bay area?

[myosh_tino]

Are there any long range plans for this project to tie in with the CA 4 widening out of the bay area?

Because of the environmentally sensitive Sacramento/San Joaquin River deltas, I highly doubt a freeway will connect Stockton and Brentwood anytime soon.

[Henry]

Well, at least a freeway to nowhere will now actually go somewhere.

[andy3175]

Are there any long range plans for this project to tie in with the CA 4 widening out of the bay area?

Because of the environmentally sensitive Sacramento/San Joaquin River deltas, I highly doubt a freeway will connect Stockton and Brentwood anytime soon.

I have no proof of this, but my suspicion is that Contra Costa County is working on fixing traffic problems from its share of development near Brentwood, Oakley, and Antioch, while San Joaquin County is now addressing its traffic problems, including the Port of Stockton connection. Whether there's any long term plan to link the two freeway segments is dependent (in my view) on whether SR 239 is ever built. SR 239 would lead from Brentwood southeast to meet I-580 and I-205 near Tracy. I haven't heard anything lately on whether SR 239 is still on the table or not. Another variable is whether SR 84 will ever be extended north as a divided highway or freeway from I-580 to SR 4 (roughly along Vasco Road, which travels south from SR 4 bypass at Marsh Creek Road in Brentwood). The presence of either SR 84 or SR 239 would allow the dangling freeway end at Brentwood to go "somewhere."

Myoshtino is right about SR 4 between proposed SR 239 and the Port of Stockton. That segment, which passes through the Delta region between Discovery Bay and Stockton, is rife with wetlands, narrow bridges, and islands that would all have to be surmounted in some environmentally sensitive manner. While I would not state that there's no chance that SR 4 will ever be expanded, I can say that it would be an expensive endeavor to widen the road (i.e., add another set of lanes) or to convert that into a freeway. I think that as development from the Bay Area continues to push east, we'll see increased traffic growth and a desire to expand SR 4 gradually. Having said that, I'm not sure how one develops on islands and low areas that in some cases are below sea level.

Regards,
Andy