After years of design work that cost millions of dollars, Ceres city officials now say a new Mitchell/Service freeway interchange is way too expensive to build and are now looking at a new and less costly design option.
City Engineer Michael Beltran delivered that shocking news to the Ceres City Council last week in providing an update on interchange plans which are now already over 20 years in the planning.
In 2017 when the council chose a diverging diamond design for a new Service Road overpass as the best to handle traffic volumes into 2040, cost estimates were pegged at $120 million to $135 million. In time the cost “blew up” to $220 million to $250 million, said Beltran, and by the time of construction could approach $300 million which he termed “not feasible” for funding.
“Any project that lasts 20 plus years generally becomes very expensive and it becomes very difficult to build,” Beltran told the council.
A new conceptual design has been conceived that could reduce the costs to $85 million to $105 million simply by scrapping the idea of shifting Highway 99 some 80 feet to the east which would eliminate a “huge cost …and a lot of time.” Another estimated $10 million to $15 million is needed to buy up the required right-of-way property.
Beltran, who inherited the project when he came to the city in February, said realigning the freeway didn’t seem like a workable plan the moment he took a look at the design. He told the Courier that he had no idea why it was considered years ago in the design phase.
The diverging diamond concept is also out due to how it would inflate costs.
“We can’t make it work for something that’s reasonable to build,” Beltran told the Courier.
The new design would leave the existing Service Road overpass to place and widening it, similar to when the Mitchell Road Bridge over the Tuolumne River was widened from two lanes to four lanes in the 1990s.
Unfortunately, finding a new design means sending out RFPs (request for proposal) to a firm to write a supplemental project report, supplemental environmental documents and new design services. It also means re-engaging with Caltrans and officials of StanCOG (Stanislaus Council of Governments). StanCOG is the clearing agency for state and federal road funds.
“While it looks like it’s much wider than the diverging diamond interchange,” Beltran explained of the new Service Road overpass design, “the actual costs are significantly less just due to … the freeway stays exactly where it is.”
The latest development pushes a more realistic time frame for construction out to 2028 or 2030 and open to traffic by 2032.
“There’s still a lot of work to do.”
He also commented that: “Obviously this is not what I would call your typical interchange by any means, however it does get us to a cost point that is actually feasible for us to contract using our local funds, Measure L regional funds and grant funding that will support the project.”
Measure L passed in 2016 which allowed Ceres to be reimbursed for some of those design costs.
Beltran went over the extensive history of the project and the staggering amounts of money already spent on design work. Starting in 2003, the city has contracted with Nolte & Associates (now NV5) with the city making 13 contract amendments costing $11.5 million.
Earlier this year the city contracted with a right-of-way consultant but put on the brakes pending the city’s review of engineering designs.
Dokken Engineering was hired by Ceres to review the design and conceptual alternative analysis for cost savings.
