The San Benito County Public Works Department hopes to replace
the Nash Road Bridge beginning this summer, restoring a traffic
route from southwestern Hollister to Union Road that was lost
nearly eight years ago.
The San Benito County Public Works Department hopes to replace the Nash Road Bridge beginning this summer, restoring a traffic route from southwestern Hollister to Union Road that was lost nearly eight years ago.
The bridge and channel embankment were washed out during heavy rains in early 1995 that caused the river to overflow its banks. Public Works wants to permanently restore pedestrian and vehicle access across the river to increase the level of safety for all traffic on Nash Road.
Dale Rosskamp of the Public Works Department said a lot of traffic travels along Nash Road past San Benito High School.
“You also have the (concrete) precasting yards out there, which adds a lot of traffic because the only way to San Benito Street is Nash Road,” he said.
Besides having Westside Boulevard as an outlet from Nash Road, the bridge will allow traffic to exit to Riverside Drive and Union Road.
The new bridge will cost $2 million, Rosskamp said, of which $1.6 million will come from federal funding. The remaining $400,000 will come from state funds, which have already been approved and are not affected by the budget cuts proposed by Gov. Gray Davis.
“This was already set in motion,” Rosskamp said.
Originally, the bridge was a 20-foot-wide box culvert with a seasonal low-flow crossing, which Rosskamp said cost $10,000 per year to maintain – “$5,000 to put it in and $5,000 to take it out.”
The old culvert was big enough to be classified by the Federal Highway Administration for a bridge restoration and rehabilitation grant.
“The grant is not to reestablish the old (bridge),” Rosskamp said.
The new bridge will be constructed along the original alignment within the existing right-of-way. It will be 600 feet long and 40 feet wide to accommodate two 12-foot-wide traffic lanes and a five-foot wide pedestrian sidewalk.
The county will consider filing a mitigated negative declaration after the public comment and review period, which ends Feb. 9.
Depending on the permit requirements from state and federal agencies such as the U.S. Department of Fish and Game and the state Water Quality Control Board, Public Works would like to have the job done this summer.
“It will take a whole summer to do it,” Rosskamp said. “If we don’t start this summer, for sure it will be done next summer.”
