By PETER CROWLEY and JED LOGAN
Staff Writers
HOLLISTER
– Widening California Route 25 between Gilroy and Hollister is
not a done deal, but Caltrans is distributing possible design plans
for making it a four-lane highway with a new interchange at U.S.
101 – perhaps with a connection to Gilroy’s Santa Teresa
Boulevard.
By PETER CROWLEY and JED LOGAN
Staff Writers
HOLLISTER – Widening California Route 25 between Gilroy and Hollister is not a done deal, but Caltrans is distributing possible design plans for making it a four-lane highway with a new interchange at U.S. 101 – perhaps with a connection to Gilroy’s Santa Teresa Boulevard.
At present, however, the state hasn’t budgeted for the construction.
“We only have money to do this environmental study,” Caltrans Project Manager Richard Rosales said. “The project would probably be done in phases.”
If the state can recover from its current budget crisis, construction could begin as early as 2009.
Rosales described a Caltrans plan in which Highway 25 would go from two lanes to four with a median. Caltrans officials don’t know yet whether to make it an expressway with limited access or to keep it a conventional highway and allow side roads and driveways to intersect it as they do now. Either way, Caltrans would have to limit driveway access around Highway 25’s interchange with U.S. 101, so as not to encumber traffic flow.
The interchange would move from its current location, about a mile and a half south of U.S. 101’s Monterey Street exit. Rosales said this would be necessary to avoid closing the interchange completely during construction.
Caltrans is currently soliciting public feedback on three proposals for where to place the new interchange:
• south of the existing interchange, meaning that Highway 25 would go right through the Bloomfield Ranch property. Bloomfield Ranch has historic significance, both as the site of the first Gilroy Garlic Festival and as the property of cattle baron Henry Miller.
• just north of the existing interchange, slightly impacting Bloomfield Ranch.
• further north of the existing interchange, completely avoiding Bloomfield Ranch.
West of this interchange, Caltrans hopes to connect Highway 25 to Gilroy’s Santa Teresa Boulevard – a great benefit to Gavilan College students and staff coming from Hollister, who now have to drive several miles out of their way through Gilroy. While Caltrans is studying this possibility, Santa Teresa is a Santa Clara County road, meaning design and construction of this connection would be up to that county, not Caltrans.
Finally, Caltrans would make U.S. 101 a six-lane freeway all the way south to the Highway 25 interchange. At present, U.S. 101 shrinks to a four-lane expressway south of the Monterey Street exit.
As part of the process toward creating a final design, Rosales put together a team of state experts, engineers, planning officials and a historian to talk with residents Wednesday in Hollister.
“We were hoping to hear the public’s interest … and any other alternatives and suggestions people might have,” Rosales told a roomful of interested residents and property owners.
Seeing the proposed routes was especially gratifying to those who have been pushing for the expansion of the highway for the past three years.
“Obviously, I’m pleased to see the project is where it is at,” said Brad Pike, founder of the Stay Alive on Highway 25 organization. “Three and a half years ago, I didn’t think I would be sitting in a gym looking at alternative plans for a new highway.
“It’s satisfying to see true progress being made.”
Although the death toll on Highway 25 is not as high so far this year as it was in 2002, Pike said Caltrans shouldn’t stop making improvements to the highway.
The open house received high praise from public officials.
“I think this is just the first stage, but this process will have to continue because I don’t know if the first way is truly the best,” San Benito County Supervisor Pat Loe said. “But this is a great first step.”
“I’m more concerned with the fact that they don’t have a real direction yet,” resident Everett Clark said. “All of this could change in the next month or the next year.”
Although the gym at R.O. Hardin Elementary School was not filled with people, the four-hour open house was considered successful for such an early point in the process.
“I think the turnout was outstanding,” Caltrans Public Affairs Manager Lauren Wonder said. “We had a lot of people come in: a lot of property owners, business owners, public agencies and private agencies. We had people stay until the end.”
The public input was negative at times, but Wonder said it was important for officials to hear.
“Caltrans always wants to get public input on this road and any kind of improvements that will have an impact on the citizens,” Wonder said. “This can help us determine the scope – whether a road needs to be built at all and, if so, where it should be built.”
