The perilous stretch of Highway 25 that cuts through downtown
under the guise of San Benito Street may soon become a
pedestrian-friendly roadway beckoning shoppers to local store
fronts, city officials said Friday.
Hollister – The perilous stretch of Highway 25 that cuts through downtown under the guise of San Benito Street may soon become a pedestrian-friendly roadway beckoning shoppers to local store fronts, city officials said Friday.
San Benito Street, as part of 25, is owned by CalTrans, which doesn’t require its roads to be pedestrian-friendly. Hence the speeding traffic, lack of crosswalks and intimidation factor for shoppers or anyone else on foot.
But after years of planning, construction on the Highway 25 bypass project will begin in June, finally creating a new leg that circumvents Hollister’s downtown, hooking up with Airline Highway and giving control of San Benito Street to the city. That essentially means the city has struck a deal with CalTrans to build a new 2.5-mile-long stretch of highway, which Hollister will give CalTrans in exchange for control of San Benito Street, Transportation Planner Mary Dinkuhn explained.
The plan has been in the works since at least 1988, when voter-approved Measure A upped sales tax by one-half cent to help pay for highway improvements. Since then, the project has gotten $12 million from Measure A, $7 million in traffic impact fees, and $2 million each from developer fees and federal demonstration funds, Dinkuhn said.
Candy Maroney, who works at She’s clothing store at San Benito and Sixth streets, said it was about time San Benito Street got some relief from the deluge of traffic it sees every day.
“As far as I’m concerned, I think it’s (the bypass) a good thing. On Fridays you can’t even get into downtown, and during the days it’s hard for pedestrians to get across the street or for people to park,” she said.
City Manager Clint Quilter echoed this sentiment at a bypass meeting Friday afternoon.
“Quite frankly, as long as we have a highway running through our downtown, having a vibrant downtown is going to be very difficult because we’ll have to deal with state right-of-way,” he said.
The San Benito Council of County Governments (COG) is in the process of acquiring properties for the new $24 million bypass project, Dinkuhn said.
“It may not be finished by the time construction is started, but right now we’re hoping for the majority of it,” she said.
But even then, it could be some time before CalTrans hands over control, according to Redevelopment Agency Director Bill Avera and interim Deputy Director of Public Works Steve Wittry.
“It’s a long process for CalTrans to go through to relinquish that property to the city, and from what we’re hearing from CalTrans, they don’t have a lot of money to put into it,” Wittry said.
Before the city will accept the roadway, he explained, CalTrans is expected to make certain improvements, including the installation of handicapped access ramps. And the process for CalTrans to give up authority can take up to two years, he added.
While Dinkuhn confirmed this, she said she wasn’t worried the time would drag out.
“I’m confident that eventually CalTrans will turn (San Benito Street) over to the city. They are required to bring the roadway up to a state of good repair before they can give it to a local agency, but the city can possibly work out something where CalTrans would reimburse us later for repairs,” she said.
Once the city does have control of the roadway, the RDA will have leeway to add pedestrian features to the new San Benito Street to make it more attractive to residents and shoppers.
“The whole goal from the city side is to have a pedestrian-friendly downtown, but it’s going to be along process deciding what’s actually going to be done,” Avera said. “We’ve talked about various things we might do to make it more pedestrian-friendly, like going one lane each way, having diagonal parking, and we’ve had people asking about parks down the middle like in Morgan Hill, but nothing’s concrete yet.”
In exchange for San Benito Street, CalTrans will receive a new stretch of roadway designed to state standards, meaning there will be no new driveways and no parking along the new section of Hwy. 25, according to Carla Vincent, who works for design and environmental consulting firm Parsons. There will also be a speed limit of 35 mph, she said, and traffic from Santa Ana, Meridian, and Sunnyslope streets should be distributed to the bypass so it doesn’t overflow onto San Benito Street.
“Really this isn’t going to be considered a highway; it’s an urban arterial street. There are basically two kinds of streets: Residential and arterial. When you really need to get somewhere fast, you take an arterial,” Dinkuhn explained.
The city should begin construction on the project in June, and would be done within 15 to 18 months, she said.
Jessica Quandt covers politics for the Free Lance. Reach her at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or at [email protected].
