Stockton Breaks Ground On Crosstown Freeway Expansion

Caltrans has broken ground on a 140 million dollar project to extend Stockton's Crosstown Freeway to the Port of Stockton. The extension is expected to help reduce truck traffic in one neighborhood.

Stockton's Crosstown Freeway becomes Highway 4 between Interstate 5 and Highway 99.

The original plan was that it was to continue to the Port of Stockton but that extension has been stalled for the last 40 years.

Business has grown at the Port, and with it the volume of truck traffic.

Caltrans District 10 Director Amarjeet Benipal says the extension will take thousands of trucks off the street in the Boggs Tract neighborhood.

"It's about 7,500 vehicles which is travelling that stretch and two-thirds of that is actually truck traffic," Benipal says.

San Joaquin County Council of Governments Director Andrew Chesley says Measure K money raised with a local sales tax increase covers half the project's cost, without it, the construction could not go forward.

"That $70 million was used to leverage $70 million from the State of California so great kudos to the voters or San Joaquin County."

The extension is expected to be completed in late 2017.