The Mantelli-Santa Teresa link should be open by Christmas
Much to the delight of motorists who use city streets in
Gilroy’s northwest quadrant, the project to link Mantelli Drive
with Santa Teresa Boulevard is a month ahead of schedule and should
be open by Christmas.
The Mantelli-Santa Teresa link should be open by Christmas
Much to the delight of motorists who use city streets in Gilroy’s northwest quadrant, the project to link Mantelli Drive with Santa Teresa Boulevard is a month ahead of schedule and should be open by Christmas.
“The weather has been good and that really helped move things along,” said Gilroy Traffic Engineer Kristi Abrams. “Now, if it were to rain heavily next week, the section might not open until January.”
Work on the $1.1 million project began last summer. When completed Mantelli Drive will have one new lane in each direction in the existing gap area, a traffic signal at the intersection of Santa Teresa and Mantelli, a center median with landscaping, and sidewalks on both sides of Mantelli Drive.
Mantelli Drive now runs east to west from Church Street to Zinnia, and then starts again at Santa Teresa and travels all the way to the city’s westernmost limits near the Country Estates subdivision in the foothills.
“We’re all looking forward to its opening,” said Abrams. “It’s going to minimize impacts to neighborhoods on Welburn Avenue. The community will like it and the police and fire departments will also be thrilled because it will improve response times substantially.”
Although the city hasn’t done traffic counts on Mantelli for several years, it is estimated that by the year 2020 some 8,000 vehicles a day will drive the street.
“We’re going to start doing traffic counts next week in the area,” said Abrams. “We don’t have numbers yet but the benefit will be substantial.”
Until next month, the 700-foot gap on Mantelli was never accessible to motorists. However, as expansion and housing development moved to the northwestern part of the city, the need to pave the stretch came to the forefront.
Originally part of the $6 million Santa Teresa Widening Project, the Mantelli Gap Closure and Signal project was pulled to accommodate the rapid housing growth in the area.
The Santa Teresa widening project is expected to begin in the spring of 2003. It calls for the widening of the boulevard from two to four lanes with the addition of a landscaped median and a sidewalk along the east side of the street. Some of the older sound barriers along the stretch will also be replaced.
The widening will begin just past First Street and head north to Longmeadow Drive. Long-term plans call for Santa Teresa to be widened all the way to Fitzgerald–making it easier for motorists to access U.S. 101 from Gilroy’s west side.
The last time traffic counts were done on Santa Teresa near Mantelli they were up to 14,000 vehicles a day on the stretch.
In the next 20 to 30 years that figure is supposed to jump to some 36,000.
