$40,000 project designed to increase motorist, pedestrian
safety
The annual repainting of traffic markings on approximately 150
miles of Hollister roads will take place this month in an effort to
improve safety and reduce the city’s liability.
For the past 18 years, Hollister has contracted with the Santa
Clara County Roads and Airports Department to paint centerlines,
edgelines and lanelines throughout the city using
”
specialized and very expensive
”
pavement marking equipment, according to Community Services
Director Clay Lee.
$40,000 project designed to increase motorist, pedestrian safety
The annual repainting of traffic markings on approximately 150 miles of Hollister roads will take place this month in an effort to improve safety and reduce the city’s liability.
For the past 18 years, Hollister has contracted with the Santa Clara County Roads and Airports Department to paint centerlines, edgelines and lanelines throughout the city using “specialized and very expensive” pavement marking equipment, according to Community Services Director Clay Lee.
“They do the things that we can’t do with the equipment we have,” said Lee. “That’s why it’s a little pricey. To purchase the type of equipment they use, you’re talking $400,000 or $500,000. It is not cost effective for the City of Hollister to purchase the equipment and train staff to perform this work.”
Instead, the city contract, approved by the Hollister City Council last month, is for an amount not to exceed $40,000. The work is expected to take approximately five working days to complete.
“In addition to the centerline striping, they’ll do the fog lines along the edge of roads; they’ll do bike lanes, center dividers, left-turn pockets,” Lee said. “Because of their familiarity with our streets and expertise in performing these services, they are able to complete the work in a timely and cost-effective manner.”
City public works crews will perform traffic marking work – such as re-painting crosswalks, marking parking stalls and other regulatory pavement markings – that does not require large equipment.
“We do a lot of our painting now [when the weather is good] and it really gets heavy prior to school starting up again, especially the crosswalks near school sites,” Lee said. “We have a limited number of guys that do that work, so it takes most of the summer and fall to get it done.”
City crews are also responsible for cleaning up glass from city roadways after an accident and they knock down weeds along San Felipe Road’s median and roadside out to the Hollister Airport, Lee said.
“They also do alley clean-ups and anything related to curbs, gutters and sidewalks in order to minimize tripping hazards,” he said, noting that storm drain clean-up is also scheduled. “Those kinds of things keep them pretty busy.”
While Hollister has a longstanding partnership with Santa Clara County to perform the annual road re-striping, Lee said the city next fiscal year may also solicit bids from private firms to see if they can provide the work at a lower price than the city now pays.
