The highways and byways of the Riverbank area have been seeing significant improvements this summer.

Just last week, utility companies and road crews were active on city roads and streets, with traffic restrictions from time to time.

Traffic lanes on Oakdale Road were blocked while paving work was done, between Patterson Road and Morrill Road.

On Tuesday, July 31, travel was limited to the outside lane going each way while work was done on the center three lanes.

By midafternoon, sweeper trucks were at work, brushing up loose gravel that had been applied after the roadway had been oiled. The outside lanes, nearest the businesses, were done earlier.

When the sweeping was finished and the road opened to traffic, there was still a bit of loose gravel to be found, but most had been removed by the equipment.

Large clouds of dust inundated passing motorists and those in the CVS area parking lots while the work was going on.

During this same period, resurfacing work was carried out on Patterson Road, between the First and Third street intersections.

Road work also slowed traffic on Patterson Road last week, near the intersections of Ross and Callander avenues, and Patterson.

On Morrill Road last week, it was utility crews that slowed traffic.

Both in the air and underground, Modesto Irrigation District crews were working on power poles and lines between Oakdale Road and Squire Wells Way, at the northern edge of the Crossroads area. MID provides electricity to the residents there and in most of the Sylvan School District in Riverbank.

The equipment used encroached on the eastbound lane of Morrill at times, depending on where the crews were working.