Leaders weigh in on proposed routes for expansion of
Hollister-to-Gilroy roadway
With a price tag estimated at more than $300 million for
construction alone and no funding secured, the planned widening of
Hwy. 25 between Hollister and Gilroy is still years away. But
that’s not stopping local transportation planners from laying the
groundwork for a four-lane expressway that one day will replace the
well-traveled, two-lane road.
”
The economic situation has got everybody down, but you can’t
build a building unless you have a blueprint,
”
said Lisa Rheinheimer, executive director of the San Benito
County Council of Governments.
Leaders weigh in on proposed routes for expansion of Hollister-to-Gilroy roadway
With a price tag estimated at more than $300 million for construction alone and no funding secured, the planned widening of Hwy. 25 between Hollister and Gilroy is still years away. But that’s not stopping local transportation planners from laying the groundwork for a four-lane expressway that one day will replace the well-traveled, two-lane road.
“The economic situation has got everybody down, but you can’t build a building unless you have a blueprint,” said Lisa Rheinheimer, executive director of the San Benito County Council of Governments. “You can’t build a highway unless you clear the environmental review phase. It’s going to be an incremental process.”
One step in that process is the environmental impact report, which examines the potential effects that an expanded roadway would have on the agricultural land through which it would run. The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is the lead agency for the review, for which the public comment deadline ended last week.
Various options exist for Hwy. 25, including leaving it as-is – the so-called “no-build” option – or routing it to the east or west of the current roadway, which then would become a frontage road for local residents and agricultural vehicles. Simply widening the existing roadway to four lanes along its entire existing route is not being considered because of the amount of utilities, businesses and residences that would be affected by the expansion.
“We have asked Caltrans to look at options for phasing in that entire roadway,” Rheinheimer said. “It was clear to me at the time that coming up with the magnitude of $300 million for the entire stretch was going to be difficult. We asked Caltrans to break it down into segments that we could phase in over time – something smaller that is more attainable for San Benito County.”
The environmental report acknowledges the need to expand the two-lane highway due to slow-moving farm equipment and trucks sharing the existing road with commuters.
Adopting a new route alignment now, even if the money is not yet there to build it, would allow San Benito and Santa Clara counties to incorporate it into their general plans, before more development occurs along that stretch of highway.
Caltrans is considering two routes for the 11.2-mile stretch of roadway, both of which share an alignment from a half-mile south of Shore Road to U.S. 101 in Santa Clara County. From Shore Road south toward Hollister, the two proposed routes differ, with one east of the existing highway and one mostly to the west. Both alignments would be wide enough for the four-lane expressway, which would be 342 feet across, including a median.
The EIR also offers two “build alternatives,” both of which propose creating a 3.8-mile, four-lane expressway that would run from Hollister north before transitioning back to the existing two-lane highway just west of Hudner Lane. Alternative A, as it is called, would run to the east and cost nearly $98 million to construct. Alternative B, running to the west, would cost approximately $61 million.
COG’s technical advisory committee recommended that the board support the route and build alternatives that would have the expressway run to the west of the existing Hwy. 25 route. Build Alternative B would cost $36.2 million less to build than Alternative A and would affect fewer businesses and residential properties.
“The build alternatives would just be the first phase of building the entire route,” Rheinheimer said. “At the end of the day, it’s the Caltrans district director who signs the document saying which alternative moves forward. That being said, it is also important for local officials, the public, community groups or whomever to take a look at an environmental document and make their issues, concerns or preferences known so Caltrans can make and informed decision about what the local preference might be.”
The Hollister City Council and the Board of Supervisors examined the EIR and offered their feedback. All comments collected by COG and turned in to the state will be added as an appendix to the final environmental review document and answered.
“Caltrans will take all comments and make a decision on which alternative to move forward with,” Rheinheimer said.
Local officials asked the state to be cognizant of the county’s agricultural industry needs when considering a path for the highway, which will carve into ag land in the valley between Hollister and Gilroy.
To that end, COG has asked the state to reduce the planned median width from 62 feet to 46 feet to reduce the amount of land needed.
“There are 54 local driveways or highway access points and 11 local road intersections along that part of Hwy. 25,” Rheinheimer said. “Dealing with the slow-moving ag equipment trying to get onto the highway is of primary concern.”
As for funding for the route-widening project, Rheinheimer said “there’s always hope.”
“When the Hwy. 25 safety project (which is adding a median to the road from Hudner Lane north to the Santa Clara County line) was being planned, we had a very limited amount of money,” she said, noting that state transportation bonds approved in 2006 helped fund the project.
“Had we not cleared the environmental process or started working on design, we wouldn’t be any closer to being done. You have to start somewhere because it’s an incremental process by which a project comes to fruition.”
Even if money were allocated to the Hwy. 25 widening today, construction wouldn’t start for about five years, Rheinheimer said. In the meantime, COG has been in contact with Rep. Sam Farr’s office seeking federal money for the project’s design work.
“No project is ever perfect,” she said. “It’s a constant weighing of priorities: business, residents, agricultural lands, wetlands, endangered species.
“We’re taking baby steps to a new road.”
