GILROY
Area motorists could have a safer, faster and easier ride to Salinas, Hollister and the Central Valley thanks to the largest South County highway improvement project ever proposed.
The Santa Clara County Valley Transportation Authority proposed a slew of construction projects to streamline travel near the intersection of U.S. 101 and Highway 25 in southern Gilroy. These improvements – which would cost $750 million and not be complete until 2017 at the earliest – will address long-standing regional safety and traffic concerns, proponents said.
“The existing traffic is extremely unsafe,” said transportation authority Public Communication Specialist Kevin Wilson. “Any afternoon in the peak commute time – say three to six o’clock – people will start lining up on the freeway in the shoulder. Some people are traveling past them at 65 mph or higher. Something has to desperately change with that interchange.”
Proposed improvements include widening a seven-mile stretch of U.S. 101 to six lanes from Monterey Road to State Route 129 in San Benito County and adding an exit-only lane for more than a mile between Monterey Road and Highway 25. In addition, the U.S.101-Highway 25 interchange would be reconfigured; Santa Teresa Boulevard would be extended south to meet this interchange; and Highway 25 would be widened to four lanes to at least Bloomfield Avenue.
The project does not yet have funding, but Gage expects to be able to secure the majority of money from federal and state coffers – not voters via a bond. Nonetheless, the price tag is staggering and eclipses past county highway projects, Gage said.
“The 101 widening (between Cochrane Road and north of Highway 85) was only about $65 million,” he said. “If you took all the other projects together – they don’t add up. It’s the most significant individual project that we’ve ever done.”
When complete, the improvements would prevent the southbound rush-hour stalls that stretch from the interchange to Monterey Road and block one of only two highway lanes, said County Supervisor and Gilroy resident Don Gage – a driving force for the project. In addition, it could ease traffic on 10th Street and West Luchessa Avenue as the Santa Teresa extension would give motorists another route to west Gilroy.
Students commuting from Hollister – which make up 30 to 40 percent of Gavilan College – could especially benefit, said college spokeswoman Jan Bernstein-Chargin.
However, the project could create more problems for Gilroy drivers if not done in a certain order, City Transportation Engineer Don Dey. If U.S. 101 is expanded first, the current Mesa Road and Castro Valley Road exits would be eliminated. This would mean that all traffic between west Gilroy and points south would be funneled to 10th Street or West Luchessa Avenue, he said.
“How they phase (the project) is very critical,” he said.
If route 25 is expanded to four lanes – or six in the future – all the way east to Highway 156, route 25 could become the alternative choice for truckers crossing to and from the Central Valley, Gage said. This would ease traffic and increase safety on 10th Street – perennial concerns of residents.
“That will be the new route,” he said. Route 25 “will be freeway speeds instead of climbing up and down hills… (on the Pacheco Pass Highway) with the traffic built up.”
Diverting Valley traffic to route 25 is an option, but it is not a definite component of the proposed improvements, Wilson said.
“That is very preliminary,” he said. “There’s been a number of different suggestions as to how to get people safely from 152 – coming from Los Banos – onto 101.”
Residents will have a chance to voice their opinions and have questions answered by county and city heads as well as transportation authority staff at an open house Thursday. This meeting is, in essence, kicks off the project, Gage said.
If residents such as Linda Graham – owner of downtown’s Collective Past and a commuter from Hollister – are any example, the project will be well-received.
“It gets awfully backed up there,” she said. “Sometimes we’re backed up clear past the next intersection. I’m not in that big of a hurry – it’s the danger that’s the bad part of it. Making an extra lane, it would make it a lot better.”
