Turner interchange to get redone
Seven years ago, the San Joaquin Council of Governments implemented a study to improve safety along Highway 99 through Lodi.
One of the aspects of the study was to remodel the interchange at Turner Road and Highway 99.
But due to a lack of state funding in 2016, the project was shelved.
Now, that project is once again moving forward thanks in part to the county’s Measure K, as well as new state and federal funding.
The Lodi City Council on Tuesday received a presentation about the interchange improvement project during its 7 a.m. shirtsleeve session.
Matt Satow, a representative of Rancho Cordova engineering firm Drake, Haglan and Associates, said the project once aimed at improving safety on Highway 99 is now focused on improving traffic on one of Lodi’s most frequented thoroughfares.
“We ended up with a project essentially making two-way traffic between Pioneer Drive and Turner Road,” he said. “It really was trying to solve the problem of how do folks get, when heading northbound on Cherokee Lane, how do they get to Turner Road instead of heading down Pioneer and taking a (longer) route around schools. We wanted to be able to provide better circulation and more direct route.”
Currently, northbound Cherokee Lane is reduced from two lanes to one at Murray Street, splits from southbound traffic and ends at Pioneer Drive, where motorists must then turn onto southbound Highway 99.
In order to access northbound Highway 99 from Cherokee Lane, motorists must veer to the right and drive over the highway to merge with traffic from Beckman and Turner roads and onto the highway.
The proposed project would
extend Cherokee Lane past Pioneer Drive to the existing Turner Road interchange. A roundabout would be constructed where the Turner Road off-ramp meets the frontage road alongside Highway 99, guiding northbound traffic around the existing vacant state property at the interchange and up to a Turner Road intersection.
A grape-themed monument welcoming drivers to Lodi would be constructed at the roundabout.
Satow said the existing acceleration lane onto southbound Highway 99 will be improved to give motorists more room to increase their speed as they merge.
The total cost of the project is anticipated to be $8.1 million, with $4.13 million coming from Measure K, the county’s half-cent sales tax for transportation projects approved by voters in 1990 and renewed in 2006.
Another $1.79 million is from SJCOG’s Highway Infrastructure
Program funding, and $1.63 million is from the agency’s Local Partnership Program funding.
Satow said Caltrans must approve the monument design for the roundabout before the project moves forward. The agency is expected to approve the structure in December.
Construction is slated to begin next September, with completion anticipated for the summer of 2022.
Diane Nguyen, SJCOG deputy director, said the project has been a primary focus for Lodi Mayor Doug Kuehne, who serves on the county board.
She said the project’s resurgence was due to Kuehne’s commitment to keeping it alive and giving his residents something of which they can be proud.
“I would highlight that Lodi residents are key to the funding of this project,” she said. “The (SJCOG) council saw Measure K revenue that has contributed more than $4 million to this project come from Lodi. That (funding) stays in Lodi, and that’s for Lodi. That’s a significant contribution for a project of this magnitude.”