Construction is underway on the new roundabout at El Camino Avenue and Pine/Park streets.

City of Ceres Public Works Director Jeremy Damas said the new roundabout at the eastern portion of the Pine Street Overpass will provide traffic calming measures while improving traffic flow. It will also help, he said, in the detours once the city and Caltrans begin building the new Service/Mitchell/ Highway 99 interchange.

Construction is expected to last through to the end of summer.

“We’re hoping that that’ll all be complete before school starts in August,” said Ceres City Manager Tom Westbrook.

The project consists of constructing a roundabout at the intersection and includes concrete curb, sidewalks, medians, hot mix asphalt surfacing, pavement marking and striping, roadway signs, landscaping and street lighting.

Westbrook said the construction is tricky because of the slant of the eastern leg of the overpass. The sidewalk had to be reconstructed because of the changes.

“It’s kind of odd to be building a roundabout kind of on a little bit of a hill and so they’re making improvements to make it ADA accessible,” said Westbrook.

The new roundabout will bring the city’s total roundabout count to five. In 2019 the city finished a roundabout at Morgan Road and Aristocrat Drive. One was built on the west side of the Pine Street overpass at Central and Industrial avenues. Two exist in downtown.

Cal Valley Construction was awarded the contract in the amount of $519,390. A 10 percent contingency brings the total to $571,329. An additional $45,833 will be used for construction surveying and staking and materials and compaction testing, bringing the project to a total cost of $617,162.

The project is mostly being funded by the federal Congestion Mitigation & Air Quality (CMAQ) program with matching funds coming from SB 1.