The future of local transportation could take shape as
decision-makers from across the region are scheduled to discuss
current highway projects and widening proposals.
The meeting is intended to provide decision-makers with the most
up-to-date information available from transportation experts about
topics such as traffic flow, regional fatalities, current road
projects and local highway widening alternatives.
The future of local transportation could take shape as decision-makers from across the region are scheduled to discuss current highway projects and widening proposals.
The meeting is intended to provide decision-makers with the most up-to-date information available from transportation experts about topics such as traffic flow, regional fatalities, current road projects and local highway widening alternatives.
“The whole idea is that it’s been so long since we’ve talked about this, I think we needed an update on the current situation,” Hollister City Councilman Tony Bruscia said. “The highway is a mess. Money is drying up and the state is in a budget deficit.”
Members of the Hollister City Council; San Benito County Board of Supervisors; San Juan Bautista City Council; Caltrans; Valley Transit Authority; Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, and Assemblyman Simon Salinas, D-Salinas, are among those scheduled to attend the April 17 meeting at 2 p.m. in Hollister City Hall. The meeting was originally scheduled for Wednesday, but had to be postponed because of a conflict with Farr’s schedule.
Bruscia said the meeting will bring together all the key players that would be involved in the construction of new highways or improving existing ones in the area.
“We want everyone who has a say in this to be there,” Bruscia said.
The meeting is also designed to help build consensus as to which direction the community should take to solve its traffic problems.
“I realize we’re probably not going to get a 100-percent consensus,” Bruscia said. “Someone is always going to have a different opinion.”
Even with the state’s financial backing for highway improvements in question, officials said it is time to build a community consensus so that when funding becomes available, local projects will be among the first to receive funding.
“We’re fighting right now to make sure we keep those funds in Proposition 42 where they belong,” Salinas said.
Salinas, who is a member of the state Assembly Transportation Committee, said the battle to keep gas tax money headed toward road repairs and construction as required in Proposition 42, starts next week with the beginning of budget hearings.
Some of the projects that will be discussed are the proposed widening of Highway 25 to four lanes.
It will take an estimated $177 million to complete the widening of Highway 25 between San Felipe Road and U.S. 101.
The proposed project would widen the 11-mile span to four lanes with a center barrier to prevent head-on collisions that have accounted for most of the 21 fatalities on the local highway.
The proposal would also include improvements at the Shore and Flynn road intersections.
The proposal may include a frontage road on either side of the highway to allow for farm equipment to move between fields without having to travel on the highway.
Another proposed highway project is being brought forward by the San Benito County Farm Bureau.
For the past two years, the farm bureau has worked for a six-lane highway which members said would make the need for expansion of highways 156, 25 and 152 obsolete.
The proposal calls for the construction of an estimated $250 million highway project that would run from the Don Pacheco “Y” at the Highway 156 and Highway 152 intersection and continue southwest along the existing Highway 156 to the corner of San Felipe Road and then to U.S. 101.
The creation of the 3-in-1 project would not have direct access to the section of Highway 152 or Highway 25 between Hollister and Gilroy.
– E-mail Jed Logan at jl****@fr***********.com
