Construction on Monterey Road through the city’s downtown is set to begin right after guests of the Gilroy Garlic Festival leave town on July 29.
The street repaving will be done in two phases: First through Fourth streets will get a grind and overlay repaving; Fourth through Eighth streets will have only a top coat of microsurfacing.
Scheduled to begin in November, the microsurfacing will take place in Gilroy’s downtown core. However, the city has scheduled the construction to happen Sunday through Tuesday, 9pm-5am.
The city’s contract with Granite Rock, which is performing the work, will run through December, but city engineer Gary Heap, who gave a presentation about the project on July 10 to business owners at the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce meeting room, said the project would likely be finished before then.
The city scheduled a meeting with community members and business owners for July 10, just before construction was set to begin. Gary Walton, president of the Downtown Business Association, said at the meeting that some businesses in the corridor would still be impacted.
“There will be impacts to the downtown,” Heap said at the meeting. “We’re going to work with you guys to try to minimize that.”
Street parking will be limited during work periods, but Heap said all driveways will remain open. He promised business owners they would be given ample notice when portions of the road are closed and parking is not available.
Heap said that when parking is not available on the street, signs will notify downtown visitors 72 hours in advance.
The project is federally funded through a grant, with additional funds coming from the city. Monterey Road repaving is separate from the First Street repaving project, which will be funded and completed by CalTrans.
The total cost of the project is about $1.6 million, with just over $1 million coming from the federal grant, according to city staff. The remainder will be funded by gas tax revenues and the city’s water enterprise fund.
Heap said at the meeting that he is not sure whether the timing of the two projects will intersect, because First Street to Leavesley Road is a CalTrans right of way.
Along with repaving, the work will also include restriping streets, adding motorcycle parking, making curbs ADA compliant and making crosswalks “high visibility,” with striping to make the path more noticeable.
Heap promised business owners that the street work would leave Gilroy with a more accessible and vibrant downtown.
