Hollister
– Two proposed transportation projects might become the first
stage in an ambitious, $500 million plan to build a new east-west
highway bypassing the dangerous and often congested Pacheco Pass
segment of Highway 152.
Hollister – Two proposed transportation projects might become the first stage in an ambitious, $500 million plan to build a new east-west highway bypassing the dangerous and often congested Pacheco Pass segment of Highway 152.
San Benito County officials said such a bypass could save lives, improve the economy and play a key part in their goals for improving the region’s three major highways.
The proposed highway would be an approximately eight-mile, four-lane route running south of Pacheco Pass and connecting U.S. Highway 101 with either state Highway 152 or state Highway 156. If all goes according to plan, the Pacheco Pass bypass should take much of the truck and commuter traffic off the other highways, becoming the major route connecting the south Bay Area and Interstate 5.
Bernice Alaniz, deputy director of marketing and public affairs at Santa Clara County’s Valley Transportation Authority, said the 152-156 interchange – set to break ground later this year – and planned improvements to 101 and the 101/Highway 25 interchange could serve as eastern and western ends of the bypass route.
Alaniz said plans are currently in the “predevelopment” stage, with VTA seeking state funds in March to study the proposed bypass more closely. Lisa Rheinheimer, new executive director for San Benito’s transportation agency, the Council of Governments, said San Benito and Santa Clara officials are currently discussing the feasibility of building the bypass and what its actual path might be.
Hollister Mayor Brad Pike – who sits on COG’s board and who successfully pushed for safety improvements to Highway 25 in the past – said fixing Highway 152 is his top transportation priority.
“We need to get that traffic moving across the hill in the safest manner,” Pike said.
Widening Highway 152 is considered to be prohibitively expensive, due in large part to the area’s hilly terrain and the road’s numerous access points, Rheinheimer said. And Pike believes speeding up traffic between I-5 and 101 will also be a plus to the region’s economy.
VTA’s current plans show the bypass running through both San Benito and Santa Clara counties – a possibility that raises the hackles of some San Benito residents who worry it could cost hundreds of millions of dollars to local taxpayers.
Rheinheimer emphasized that plans are “all conceptual” and could change dramatically.
“At this point, it’s just a dashed line,” she said.
Construction of the $33 million Highway 152/156 flyover is set to begin in April. Expanding Highway 101 south of Gilroy and building what Rheinheimer calls “a real interchange” at 101/25 is less certain. VTA has asked for $108 million in state Proposition 1B money to fund the project, but Rheinheimer said statewide applications for funding far outstrip available dollars.
VTA will find out this month whether the funding for Highway 101 improvements – including the Highway 25 interchange – is a go. If the agency doesn’t get the money, it will have to search out other funding sources, which could substantially delay the project.
Proposition 1B funding is being rolled out over several years, and the bypass could also be a candidate for funding down the line. Construction on any project receiving 1B money must begin by 2012.
Rheinheimer said the bypass is also in line with the county government’s long-term plan of widening highways 152, 156 and 25, a vision that was ratified in resolutions passed by the Board of Supervisors and COG last year.
In the past, some locals – notably members of the county farm bureau – have pushed for a “three-in-one” highway that would largely replace the region’s other routes. Greg Swett, chairman of the farm bureau’s transportation committee, has said the three-in-one would be safer and more financially feasible than improving each individual highway.
However, Rheinheimer said each of the three highways serves a unique need, and that they could not be effectively replaced by just one route.
“The numbers don’t support people actually using it,” she said.
Rheinheimer acknowledged that getting money to improve all three highways is a challenge. Rather than getting all the funding at once, COG and VTA will have to “phase things in useful chunks.”
But she said it’s still more likely than getting the dollars and the political support for a three-in-one.
Anthony Ha covers local government for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or [email protected].
