Residents will be able to drive from the shopping centers in
southeast Gilroy to the outlets in the northeast without getting
onto or passing over U.S. 101 thanks in part to a $6.75 million
grant.
Residents will be able to drive from the shopping centers in southeast Gilroy to the outlets in the northeast without getting onto or passing over U.S. 101 thanks in part to a $6.75 million grant.
On Thursday, the Valley Transportation Authority board of directors approved $20 million for Santa Clara County projects that improve traffic circulation without diverting drivers to freeways and expressways. The city of Gilroy was awarded about one-third of that money, with which it plans to build another north-south route on the east side of the highway, said county Supervisor and Gilroy resident Don Gage.
The focal point of the project is connecting Camino Arroyo – which runs through the Pacheco Pass Plaza and Gilroy Crossing shopping malls – with Gilman Road and Arroyo Circle, Gage said. Arroyo Circle swings northward past the Gilroy Premium Outlets while Gilman Road runs east-west. The city is in the process of constructing a bridge that would lead over U.S. 101 and connect Gilman Road with East Sixth Street.
City Transportation Engineer Don Dey did not return phone calls to confirm the city’s plans.
The improvements will ease traffic around the shopping centers and will provide residents who are making local trips an alternative to using the perennially clogged 10th Street, Councilman Craig Gartman said in an earlier interview.
“That would take some heat off as far as residents being able to get out there and avoid the U.S. 101-Highway 152 traffic,” he said.
In addition, the planned improvements will increase the amount of traffic Sixth Street can handle – a necessity given the construction of a new health clinic near the street’s intersection with U.S. 101 – Gage said. The Valley Health Center at Gilroy, as the clinic will be named, will provide low-cost health services to area residents starting in spring 2008.
Although Gage could not say when the improvements would be complete, he expected them to be finished around the same time as the clinic.
