City and Stanislaus County projects in and around the Riverbank community have started or will be starting soon. Development Services Department, Sr. Management Analyst, Kathleen Cleek recently gave Riverbank City Council members a presentation on project updates and the status of upcoming projects, starting with the work that has begun for the signal project at Oakdale and Morrill roads.

The contractor for this project was given the notice to proceed on March 6, 2014.

“Signal poles have been ordered and have arrived to the contractor so that’s good news,” stated Cleek. “So we are hoping for good weather so that does not get delayed.”

In the presentation it was noted that clearing and grubbing has begun and the construction has begun on the sound/retaining wall on the northwest corner of the Morrill and Oakdale intersection. The project completion is scheduled for July 23, 2014.

Cleek expressed that they will keep the council and the public informed on the progress and if there will be any detours. They will also keep the City of Riverbank website updated so residents are aware of the projects that are under way.

There is construction of new homes starting in an area off of Oakdale Road and notices were sent out to a large portion of the community that are in that area notifying them of the work.

“There may be some construction vehicles to watch out for so we are trying to make sure that we keep everyone abreast of what’s going on because we have two construction projects going on at the same time in the same area,” stated Cleek.

The next project that Cleek updated the council and public on was the intersection improvements project on Patterson and Roselle.

Initial right of way work is anticipated to begin soon with the construction phase itself tentatively scheduled for Spring 2016.

“This is still going forward; we have to wait until October for our programming due to how our funds are programmed to start our engineering right away so we haven’t started on that yet but we will be starting in October,” explained Cleek. “The construction phase for that is programmed for fiscal year 2015-2016 so what we did is we programmed the engineering and the right of way for the first year so that will give us enough time to get that done and then we will program the construction for the funds so the construction phase is tentatively scheduled for Spring of 2016, which time is flying by so it will be here before we know it.”

Intersection improvements at Claribel and Roselle (County Project) is another project that Cleek gave an update on and explained that they are unsure if there will be a roundabout or a signal light. Currently they are reviewing the traffic to determine the needed improvements.

Staff attended a meeting at the county office last week and the county awarded the design contract to Mark Thomas and Company. The company is leaning towards constructing a roundabout at Claribel and Roselle but is still researching data to make sure that it is the right thing to do as opposed to a signal.

“Right now it’s just tentative whether it’s going to be a roundabout or a signal so they are working on the environmental (report) and they’re working on obtaining the right of way that they need,” said Cleek. “I was assured that if it was a roundabout a semi-truck would be able to go through it smoothly but we will see how that goes.”

According to Cleek, the traffic study engineer had stated that if the option is for a roundabout they would be willing to come to a council meeting and show traffic cams and give information to council members and to residents to assure them that the roundabout would work in that area.

The Claribel and Roselle project is tentatively scheduled for the fall of 2015.

The final project that Cleek discussed was the Claribel Road Widening Project, which is also a Stanislaus County project from McHenry Avenue to Oakdale Road. Construction was scheduled to begin on Monday, April 28 and has a one year project schedule. The project scope is to widen Claribel to four lanes of traffic and signalize the intersection of Claribel and Coffee roads.

“They are looking at signalizing Claribel and Coffee sooner than later so they may be working on the McHenry end and then they may go up to the signal and signalize Coffee but again I will keep the council informed and if there are any closing of roads,” stated Cleek. “We will make sure the public is fully aware.”