Highway to Hassle-free Access- Segment 2 of Merced’s Campus Parkway will Open Soon

A construction crew working on Segment 2 of Campus Parkway in Merced. Photo: Steve Newvine

Every day, construction crews reach another milestone in the road project known as Campus Parkway.

Construction of Segment 2 of the project is on track to be completed in early 2020.

The project includes the construction of a four-lane expressway from Highway 99, connecting to Highway 140, and will eventually extend to Yosemite Avenue near the Lake Road intersection.

The first segment went from Highway 99 to Childs Avenue. Segment 2 will extend the expressway to Highway 140.

Segment 3 will extend the parkway to Yosemite Avenue.

Campus Parkway will eventually take travelers from Highway 99 to Yosemite Avenue, where it will be easy to connect to Lake Road north to the UC Merced campus. Photo: Steve Newvine

There was one-hundred million dollars provided from the state in the Senate Bill 1 Transportation Package.

That money will fund the current project as well as Segment 3.

According to information from the Merced County Association of Governments website, Campus Parkway will complete the south-eastern portion of the so-called “Merced Loop System.”

That system will one day circle the City of Merced and connect surrounding communities including the City of Atwater.

This map from the Merced County Association of Governments website shows the three Segments of the Campus Parkway project. Photo: MCAG

These projects have been in the works for years.

Delays along the way included efforts to successfully pass a transportation sales tax that made Merced a “self-help” county.

Many leaders point to self-help counties as being in a better position to request state and federal highway monies because these jurisdictions have local “skin-in-the-game” through revenue streams such as dedicated local sales taxes.

Merced County voters passed Measure V, a countywide half-cent sales tax for transportation in 2016.

The sales tax, went into effect in April of 2017, and was projected to generate an estimated $15 million annually for transportation.

Another setback along the way was the recession from the late 2000s through the early 2010s.

Political leaders had to fight to keep local road projects from falling off the funding radar.

The first public meeting on the proposed project was in 1999, so the completion of this second segment seems as though it has been a long time coming.

Looking back on the past two decades, our community has undergone a tremendous change.

UC Merced is now part of the landscape.

Campus Parkway will help take traffic to and from the university. It will also serve to help better connect traffic to Yosemite National Park. It’s hoped it will open the City of Merced’s south side to more economic development. One thing is certain. The new limited access expressway will offer less stressful access for many drivers.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

He has written Course Corrections available at Lulu.com

On February 9, he will be the featured speaker at the Merced County Historical Society’s annual meeting. That meeting will be held on the third floor of the Merced County Government Center, 2222 M Street, Merced.