Now is not the time to travel down the road toward Hwy. 25
expansion
Caltrans often neglects to consider San Benito County’s
financial limits and logistical preferences when making decisions
on major projects that affect the region. The latest development
regarding the planned widening of Highway 25 underscores the point
once again.
Now is not the time to travel down the road toward Hwy. 25 expansion
Caltrans often neglects to consider San Benito County’s financial limits and logistical preferences when making decisions on major projects that affect the region. The latest development regarding the planned widening of Highway 25 underscores the point once again.
Despite a state fiscal crisis that may take generations to fix and severe limitations in local funding capacity, Caltrans is moving ahead on the environmental groundwork for a widening of Highway 25 that the agency expects to cost more than $300 million – all with county taxpayers’ funds – and with the more traditional expressway having a width of 342 feet.
Having well over a football field of roadway from one side to the other not only spikes the cost, but it also means property owners along the stretch would have to give up more prime land than is truly necessary.
The numbers are unrealistic and the project as it stands is overly-grandiose in nature. Every local government agency will continue to shrink their budgets and likely will see perpetual declines in revenue to align with the recession, and for several years to come.
This kind of expense for San Benito County taxpayers, even with the down economy, is kind of like telling a priest in a struggling parish to start budgeting for a mansion.
Caltrans wants San Benito County leaders to use time, resources and money to move ahead on environmental work and choosing a route option for a project that won’t happen for at least two decades. Yet, the state is requiring local governments to pay the entire cost.
What gives, and why in such horrendous financial times for both California and San Benito County are these types of dollar amounts, this monstrosity of a project, even being broached?
There have been two primary concerns with Highway 25 in recent years, safety and congestion.
Piecemeal improvements have led to a significant drop in accident numbers and fatalities. They have done their job. As Caltrans considers its massive widening, incidentally, crews next week are expected to finish the $10.5 million project on Highway 25 – funded by locals – to install a concrete median barrier for added safety. It’s a bit of a silly notion, spending that kind of money on a major safety project, but before it’s even finished, planning for a widening that has no chance of happening for a long time to come.
Continued growth – though at a much slower pace than trends showed in the early 2000s when plans for a widening kicked into high gear – will necessitate some level of expansion on Highway 25.
But the times for a publicly-funded Taj Mahal of any sort are over.
Local leaders should urge Caltrans to choose the route option that entails no changes to the highway, in an act of postponement until a more realistic plan can be conjured up by local and state officials, and during more promising fiscal times.
