Gilroy
– Commuters, holiday travelers, and last-minute shoppers found
themselves in early-afternoon gridlock on the 10th Street overpass
and U.S. 101 late last week.
Gilroy – Commuters, holiday travelers, and last-minute shoppers found themselves in early-afternoon gridlock on the 10th Street overpass and U.S. 101 late last week.
Traffic around Route 152 started backing up around noon on Thursday and Friday, and the exit lanes on U.S. 101 were at a standstill by 3pm on both days, according to Officer Matt Ramirez of the California Highway Patrol.
He estimated that the roughly 13-mile drive from the 101 interchange to Casa de Fruta east of Gilroy along Route 152 – that normally takes about 20 minutes – took up to an hour.
But the traffic delays were not all bad news. Police Capt. Debbie Moore said the traffic “did not appear to cause” police any problems in responding to calls. And others regarded the traffic as a good omen for local businesses.
“The good part is that part of the holiday traffic over 10th Street were customers going to our shopping center,” City Transportation Engineer Don Dey said. “That’s the positive thing. I ventured over there and saw that it was backed up. That’s just expected at this time of year.”
He attributed delays to the convergence of motorists at three intersections — the two at the 101 interchanges on either side of the 10th Street bridge, and one at “the intersection that feeds all the retail stores.”
That intersection was widened several years to accommodate projected increased traffic from the influx of big box stores and other large retailers. The city already has devised a strategy to handle additional traffic expected to be generated by the Wal-Mart Supercenter, scheduled to open mid-July 2005 across from Costco’s.
The plans call for connecting the Pacheco Pass stores with the outlet center to the north by building a bridge across Llagas Creek and extending Camino Arroyo Boulevard.
“Right now everything is accessed by the freeway which creates certain bottleneck points,” Dey explained.
The city expects to complete the Camino Arroyo project within four years.
In the meantime, traffic engineers will continue working with the California Department of Transportation on traffic-signal timing at the 10th Street overpass, Dey said.
