Gilroy
– The prospects for two local highway projects were dealt a
serious blow Friday, when they failed to make a list of projects
recommended for a share of $4.5 billion in state transportation
funds.
Gilroy – The prospects for two local highway projects were dealt a serious blow Friday, when they failed to make a list of projects recommended for a share of $4.5 billion in state transportation funds.
Neither the widening of U.S. Highway 101 from Monterey Street to state Route 25 – which would include a new 101-25 interchange – nor the widening of Highway 156 received the blessing of staff at the California Transportation Commission. The interchange of San Juan Road and Highway 101, a less high-profile project, also failed to make the cut for the first round of Proposition 1B funding, approved by voters in November.
Commissioners won’t actually vote on the spending list until today, but San Benito County officials said it’s unlikely anything will change.
“This commission is not going to overturn its staff,” said Mike Graves, who served as legislative analyst for the San Benito County Council of Governments until the end of last year.
Santa Clara County Supervisor Don Gage has spent a decade trying to secure money to widen 101 south of Monterey Street. The project, combined with the construction of a new interchange with Route 25, is the linchpin of a plan to unclog dangerous roads between the Gilroy-Hollister region and the Central Valley.
“I’m disappointed,” Gage said of the news, “but we’ve faced these barriers before and we’ve gotten a lot done. We’ll continue to work. We’ll try some politics and see what happens.”
COG Executive Director Lisa Rheinheimer said she was particularly surprised and disappointed that funding for Highway 101 and the Highway 25 interchange was not approved, because it’s an important project with an inter-regional impact.
“(The decision) is not good for San Benito County,” Rheinheimer said.
Friday’s announcement doesn’t mean the projects won’t happen, she added, but they are going to be delayed until funding can be found.
The recommendations released Friday account for $2.8 billion of the $4.5 billion to be distributed through the Corridor Mobility Improvement Account. The account is itself only a fraction of the $20 billion that will be raised by the sale of bonds approved through Proposition 1B. She is hopeful about the second round of funding scheduled for 2008.
In the meantime, local commuters said they were disappointed by the setback, particularly since the widening of Highway 101 from four to six lanes would have included the construction of a full “clover” interchange between Route 25 and Highway 101. The project, budgeted to cost $128 million, could have saved commuters a collective 142,882 minutes during peak driving hours every day, according to estimates from the California’s Department of Transportation.
Hollister resident Kent Child called the current interchange a rush-hour nightmare.
“It’s just so bottled up there that it’s hard to even get into the overpass,” he said.
Child used to commute regularly to Gavilan College, where he worked as a dean and an instructor. Now that he’s retired from teaching, Child still makes the drive, albeit less frequently, because he sits on the college’s board of trustees.
He noted that the current interchange was only intended to be a temporary fixture until the full interchange could be built.
Hollister resident John Rinck, who commutes to San Jose, agreed that traffic backs up from the interchange onto Highway 101 during his drive home. On Fridays, he said, traffic stays clogged until 7pm.
Rinck favors outlawing left turns from 25 onto southbound 101, but he said that’s only a short-term solution.
“In the long-term, this project is really necessary,” Rinck said.
Commuters on Highway 156 have also complained that traffic gets backed up during peak hours. Widening the highway from two to four lanes would cost $66 million and, according to Caltrans, save commuters 46,178 minutes per day.
However, the project has also drawn criticism, particularly from San Juan Bautista residents. Its detractors worry about the loss of agricultural land and increased noise from passing trucks.
Some county residents have said a rural area like San Benito is likely to be overlooked in favor of the state’s urban regions. Indeed, Los Angeles and Orange counties alone account for nearly 25 percent of the CMIA funding.
But Graves said San Benito can still get its share of the pot if it bands together with neighboring counties. He said that’s how counties in San Joaquin Valley were able to receive more than $135 million.
“We’re going to need some real leadership,” Graves said.
Hollister Mayor Brad Pike, who also serves on COG’s board of directors, said he and other local leaders are going to do whatever it takes to get money in the second round. Pike previously succeeded in lobbying the state to fund safety improvements to Highway 25.
“If they need us to go to Sacramento again, I’m willing to do that,” he said.
Anthony Ha covers local government for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or ah*@***********ws.com.
