Pedro Wye realignment work to begin Monday
Construction is anticipated to begin Monday and continue through March, weather permitting, on a roughly $2.2 million project to realign the intersection of Parrotts Ferry Road and Highway 49 that’s known as the Pedro Wye, the Tuolumne County Public Works Department announced Thursday.
The project consists of widening Parrotts Ferry Road in the area, constructing a right-turn lane from Highway 49 onto
Parrotts Ferry Road and leftturn lane from Parrotts Ferry Road onto Union Hill Road, and eliminating the current “swing lane” that currently connects Highway 49 to Parrotts Ferry Road.
A study in 2013 determined the need for safety improvements at the intersection due to 72 crashes — one of which was fatal — over the previous 10 years, with the primary reason for them being cited as people failing to yield when the swing lane merges Highway 49 on to Parrotts Ferry Road.
Work is scheduled to take place between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays unless otherwise announced, the department said.
The county Public Works Department said the work zone will be from south of Parrotts
Ferry Road and Highway 49 to about 500 feet north of Parrotts Ferry and Union Hill roads, both of which will be subject to traffic restrictions for the duration of construction.
United Pavement Maintenance, based in Hughson, is the contractor after being awarded a $1.8 million contract by the county Board of Supervisors at a public meeting on Oct. 12, about three months after throwing out previous bids for the project that were nearly double the estimated budget.
Subcontractors for the project include Pacific Excavation Safety Network and Chrisp Company, the county Public Works Department said.
The start of construction on the project comes less than two weeks after a new Dollar General opened on the corner of Parrotts Ferry and Union Hill roads in a recently completed building that the county issued a temporary certificate of occupancy for on Oct. 27.
Vehicles going north on Parrotts Ferry Road are currently blocked from turning left onto Union Hill Road as a result of the realignment project, meaning the only access to Dollar General for people headed that direction is to turn around somewhere north of the store.
Drivers can also turn right onto Shaws Flat Road from Highway 49 and then take the mostly one-lane Union Hill Road lined with rural residential style properties.
The store occupies the first of three commercial buildings planned for construction at the corner of Parrotts Ferry Road and Union Hill roads that were approved by the county Board of Supervisors in 2017 as a commercial development called the Stone Mill Center.
Residents who live in the area raised concerns about traffic safety, particularly along Parrotts Ferry Road between Highway 49 and Union Hill Road, prior to the project’s approval and were told many of them would be addressed by a county intersection realignment project.
County officials at the time, as well as a judge who tossed
out a lawsuit attempting to halt the Stone Mill Center’s development, reassured residents concerned about safety in the area that the realignment project would be completed before the center.
However, county legal advisers determined that there was never any restriction placed on the Stone Mill Center project
that would prevent any business there from opening before the county completed the intersection realignment.
Cody Nesper, a deputy county counsel, said this week that the decision to issue the temporary certificate of occupancy for the Dollar General was made by the county Community Development Department after conferring with the county building official and other county departments on safety measures the developer would need to put in place for the building to be occupied safely until a final certificate is issued.
The required measures for the Dollar General developer included “restricting Union Hill from Parrotts Ferry to right-in, right-out only; vegetation removal along Union Hill; restricting the speed limit on Union Hill to 25 mph; and an in-lieu fee for road repairs to Union Hill should repairs be required after the temporary occupancy,” Nesper said.
Nesper said the chief building official could revoke the temporary permit, which is valid for 180 days from the date it’s issued, if the developer fails to meet the requirements. He also said that such permits are common and “in no way is providing any special treatment to this specific project,” nor does it violate any of the county’s previous approvals.