A roundabout — a growing traffic safety option for rural highways in California — may be built at Murphy Road and East Highway 120 between Manteca and Escalon.

Caltrans District 10 has proposed either deploying a roundabout or a traffic signal at the intersection bordered on three sides by almond orchards and the fourth by the Wine Group’s winery warehouse/distribution center in a bid to reduce the severity of broadside collisions.

Caltrans has noted there is a pattern of broadside collisions at the intersection due to motorists failing to yield.

East Highway 120 is notorious for heavy — almost uninterrupted — traffic flow at the start and beginning of weekends due to travel to and from the Sierra, the Gold Country, and Yosemite National Park.

It is evidenced on Sundays or the end of three-day weekends when westbound traffic trying to reach the Highway 99 interchange backs up at times to within a quarter of a mile of Jack Tone Road.

At the same time, weekday commuter traffic is on the upswing.

There is currently just one traffic signal – at Jack Tone Road – in the 10-mile stretch from Manteca’s eastern city limits at Austin Road and Escalon’s McHenry Avenue intersection.

A project study using State Highway Operation and Protection Program (SHOPP) guidelines will be conducted for the intersection to determine whether a roundabout or a traffic signal is the best option.

A traffic signal would cost $4.3 million. The SHOPP Performance Measure — a model that calculates impacts of traffic safety improvements — is seven total collisions reduced over the 15-year life of the project and 0.13 fatal and serious injuries reduced annually.

A roundabout would cost $5.9 million. The SHOPP Performance Measure for this alternative is 14 total collisions reduced over the 20-year life of the project and 0.12 fatal and serious injuries reduced annually.

Caltrans District 10 has a $20 million roundabout project in the queue for the intersection of Highway 49 and Highway 26 just north of Jackson.

Other roundabouts have also been built on Highway 108 at Mackey Ranch Road between Sonora and the Highway 120 cutoff to Yosemite National Park and at the Highway 88/Highway 12 intersection east of Lockeford and Clements.

Caltrans is also planning a $7.6 million project to reduce collisions at French Camp Road where it intersects at an angle to East Highway 120 due to it paralleling the railroad tracks.