Highway 99 near Atwater to see changes Wednesday

New northbound lanes of Highway 99 south of Atwater, which are part of the Atwater-Merced Expressway Project, will open early Wednesday, officials announced.

Merced County Association of Governments and the California Department of Transportation will open the new alignment around 6 a.m. Wednesday, according to a news release.

Construction crews continue to make progress on the $336 million expressway, which replaces the Buhach Road interchange. The expressway eventually will connect to Castle Commerce Center and UC Merced.

The opening of the new northbound lanes, which change the alignment of the highway, will also mark the final closure of all ramps associated with the Buhach Road interchange. Shifting northbound traffic to the new alignment is meant to clear the way for construction of the southbound ramps of the expressway.

Crews from Granite Construction, the Watsonville-based company working on the project, are scheduled to finish the transitions necessary to allow traffic to be switched from the existing northbound lanes to the new alignment. Motorists on Highway 99 should expect a five to 10 minute delay in that area until the transitions are complete, officials said.

The dry year, though painful for farmers, has allowed construction to continue on schedule. The project will eventually run to Highway 59, and will widen a section of Highway 99 to six lanes.

Eventually, the network of roads will carry drivers around Merced, avoiding the stretch of Highway 99 that splits the city.

UC Merced has a goal to reach 10,000 students by 2020, and could expand beyond that, so regional leaders are looking to alleviate traffic that could build on that stretch of freeway.

This story was originally published June 23, 2015 at 10:02 AM with the headline "Highway 99 near Atwater to see changes Wednesday."