In the latest aggravating development in the seemingly
star-crossed Highway 25 Bypass project, county and city leaders are
trying to figure out how to come up with another $15.5 million to
pay for the new road.
In the latest aggravating development in the seemingly star-crossed Highway 25 Bypass project, county and city leaders are trying to figure out how to come up with another $15.5 million to pay for the new road.
The trouble this time – the project has been on the books for decades but has run into roadblocks at every turn – is inflation in the cost of nearly everything: asphalt, fuel and land. Hurricane Katrina and the rising cost of oil have played a hand in the increase, but so has the Council of Governments – the county’s transportation agency.
Don’t forget, construction on the project, originally estimated at $24 million, was slated to begin last year until land owners raised a stink about how much money COG was offering them for the property needed to build the road that will route cross-town traffic around downtown. They said they were lowballed, COG delayed the project and went back to the drawing board to get new appraisals. Not suprisingly, the price of land went up. Had COG not tried to do it on the cheap last year, this project could be well underway by now.
Instead, county and city leaders are faced with some unsavory options to finance the road.
The first calls for using more than $9 million in undedicated county and city traffic impact fees and shifting state funding so an additional $6.3 million is allocated for the bypass. A second scenario would use the impact fees and divert $5 million from Hollister’s North Street extension project and $1.8 from the county’s safety improvement project on John Smith Road.
“They are all doable,” COG Director Tom Quigley said. “You just have to make a choice.”
The bypass should be the priority, even if it means delaying the other road projects, for two reasons: community safety and the economic revitalization of downtown. Once complete, the city will be able to turn over the 2.5 mile bypass to CalTrans in exchange for control of San Benito Street, which is now a state highway.
That will end the excuses for not making it safer to cross the street downtown. CalTrans argues that San Benito Street is a highway and doesn’t need more stop signs or traffic lights, and that putting in crosswalks would only give pedestrians a false sense of security. That makes for a risky dash through traffic anytime someone wants to cross the road.
But once the road is handed over to the city, officials will have the freedom to reconfigure the sidewalks, narrow the street, put in crosswalks or take any other steps necessary to make downtown friendly to pedestrians. And once that happens, perhaps more people will come downtown to shop because to make San Benito Street a successful business district – the goal of many downtown shop keepers and city leaders – safety is exactly what’s needed.
The bottom line is this project must begin for our safety and to revive downtown. Find the money and do it this year before the costs soar again.
