Safety project completed 10 years after initial efforts
Transportation authorities and others involved in the Hwy. 25
median project gathered outside the Veterans Memorial Building
Sept. 9 to celebrate the road work completion.
The project included the installation of 4.75 miles of concrete
barriers separating the westbound and eastbound lanes of Hwy. 25,
roughly from Hudner Lane in San Benito to the Santa Clara County
line. Other improvements included an upgraded rumble strip, the
addition of frontage roads for agricultural vehicles, and improved
lighting at Hudner Lane and Shore Road.
Safety project completed 10 years after initial efforts
Transportation authorities and others involved in the Hwy. 25 median project gathered outside the Veterans Memorial Building Sept. 9 to celebrate the road work completion.
The project included the installation of 4.75 miles of concrete barriers separating the westbound and eastbound lanes of Hwy. 25, roughly from Hudner Lane in San Benito to the Santa Clara County line. Other improvements included an upgraded rumble strip, the addition of frontage roads for agricultural vehicles, and improved lighting at Hudner Lane and Shore Road.
The work was initially expected to be completed in May, but was delayed due to rainfall throughout the winter season, according to Mary Gilbert, of the Council of San Benito County Governments. But the project’s history dates further back than its June 2009 groundbreaking.
“Ten years,” said Brad Pike, a former Hollister city councilman and firefighter, of the project’s completion. “Wow. Who would think it would take 10 years?”
Working as a firefighter, Pike was witness to many of the accidents on Hwy. 25 in the mid ’90s that prompted the formation of a safety committee to look at ways to improve the corridor.
“As a firefighter, you see the aftermath of the mistakes of impaired driving,” he said. “I spoke with many families who lost loved ones and it wasn’t right.”
Tim Saxon, of the California Highway Patrol, said 37 people died in accidents along the stretch of road between 1993 and 2002.
Pike said he started asking around locally if anything was being done to improve safety on the corridor 10 years ago and the answer was no. With help from his committee he collected more than 20,000 signatures, more than half the county population at the time, to ask for improvements to the road.
“It was a long process, but we can look back and see the wonderful work,” Pike said.
Rich Krumholz, of Caltrans District 5, said the safety project was shepherded to their attention by “private citizens…ordinary people doing extraordinary things.”
Krumholz described the project as a “triple crown of safety.” He said the first phase included installing a no passing center line along Hwy. 25 and a rumble strip. In 2002, two four-foot median barriers were put in. The last phase of the project was installing the concrete barriers.
“The median barrier will prevent crossover and head on collisions,” he said. “We closed and consolidated several field roads. It eliminates a potential conflict point.”
The number of access points from agricultural fields has been limited and instead, the tractors and other agricultural vehicles have gravel frontage roads along each side of the roadway.
Bruce Wolpert, of Graniterock, spoke about the company’s Pavex Construction Division’s involvement with the project.
“There is 17,900 feet of median roadway, a new rumble strip,” he said. “The new access roads for tractors really look great. The roadway is four feet wider and there is new lighting at Hunder (Lane) and Shore (Road.)”
The project also included a pavement overlay along the same stretch of road as the medians.
He shared a story of one building materials driver who was involved in a collision with a driver who tried to pass a slower-moving vehicle.
“He watched the driver’s eyes as he realized he wasn’t going to make it back into his lane,” Wolpert said.
In addition to the physical upgrades to the roadway, Saxon, of the CHP, said one of the initial safety improvements was a public awareness campaign, “Stay Alive on Highway 25” as well as more signage.
Construction of the Hwy. 25 Safety Project began on June 1, 2009. The Council of Governments signed a contract with Graniterock Company’s Pavex Construction Division in April 2009 for the $6.9 million project.
“We had some cost savings along the way, but we did use some of it to do the pavement overlay,” said Gilbert, of the project that was funded mostly through the state transportation improvement program and some from the Hollister’s Redevelopment Agency.
The total project, with design and construction was $13.14 million, with $10 million of that going for construction.
Reb Monaco, the chair of the county board of supervisors and Victor Gomez, Hollister mayor, also spoke at the event.
