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4. ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS 4.4 TRANSPORTATION AND CIRCULATION -- PLANNED ROADWAY IMPROVEMENTS The California Department of Transportation(Caltrans)has long-range plans to upgrade SR 132 to a four-lane freeway between I-580 and Modesto. This ultimate plan, however, is neither — programmed,funded,nor designed. Initial plans would widen SR 132 from two to four lanes in the Modesto area and west of I-5 (where currently alternate segments of four and two lanes exist), and would likely construct safety barriers along segments. Existing mining operations near the project site,as part of their conditions of project approval, fund the construction of a four-lane expressway section in the.Bird Road/SR 132 intersection — vicinity,from the end of the existing four-lane section west of the SR 132/I-5 interchange to a point approximately 1,000 feet west of Bird Road. This widening will include left-turn and right-tum lanes,and acceleration and deceleration lanes on SR 132 at Bird Road, and will be part of the future construction of a freeway interchange currently planned by Caltrans in an undefined future year. Another condition of approval for the mining projects is that Blewett and Bird Roads shall be reconstructed as 50-foot-wide right-of-way rural roads,specifically Blewett Road from Bird Road to the north main entrance for the project,and Bird Road from Blewett Road to SR 132. A Traffic Index of 13 shall be used for road design purposes(San Joaquin County, 1992b).3 AGENCY CONSULTATION On October 22, 2003,a meeting was held at Stanislaus County offices to discuss the scope of the _ traffic analysis. The attendance for this meeting list is included in Appendix A. The meeting resulted in several issues including additional intersection analysis east of Koster Road on SR 132, status of infrastructure improvements initiated by previous mining projects within the — vicinity and accident data requests have not been responded to by various agencies. A methodology paper was issued in January 2003. San Joaquin County was on the only agency which provided comments on this paper. — 4.4.3 IMPACTS AND MITIGATION MEASURES SIGNIFICANCE CRITERIA According to CEQA Guidelines,a project would normally have a significant effect on the environment if it would"cause an increase in traffic which is substantial in relation to the existing traffic load and capacity of the street system." Level of Service C is the standard contained in the San Joaquin County and Stanislaus County General Plans, and in Caltrans' Route Concept Report for SR 132. For the purpose of this EIR,if the project or cumulative development traffic in the area would cause the intersection or roadway peak-hour level of service to degrade to worse than _ 3 Traffic Index is a logarithmically-based scale that indicates the ability of the pavement structure to support repetitive wheel and axle loads of large trucks,given a sound structural roadway sub-base. The effects on pavement life of passenger cars,pickups,and two-axle/four-wheel trucks are considered to be negligible. RMC Pacific Venalis Quarry Mining and Reclamation Project 4.4-10 ESA/203015 Administrative Draft EEL March 2004