GILROY
– Gilroy isn’t in U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo’s district, but the
Republican lawmaker from Tracy knows – as anyone who travels
between the Silicon and Central valleys does – about a traffic
bottleneck on the Pacheco Pass Highway in front of Gilroy
Foods.
GILROY – Gilroy isn’t in U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo’s district, but the Republican lawmaker from Tracy knows – as anyone who travels between the Silicon and Central valleys does – about a traffic bottleneck on the Pacheco Pass Highway in front of Gilroy Foods.
In a budget year made tight by tax cuts and a war in Iraq, Pombo managed to squeeze $250,000 for a widening/stoplight project on Pacheco Pass Highway (state 152) into the Omnibus Appropriations Bill, which the House of Representatives passed on Dec. 8. The Senate will consider the spending plan in January.
The money will pay only a small portion of the planned $12 million solution, but Santa Clara County (District-1) Supervisor Don Gage – who put the bug in Pombo’s ear about the project – said he wasn’t disappointed.
“I was very pleased to hear that Pombo was able to get us anything,” Gage said Thursday. “You’re always hoping for more, but I understand that (members of Congress) aren’t in any better shape (budget-wise) than anyone else is.”
The project includes a stoplight in front of Gilroy Foods and widening the road from there to the other side of Llagas Creek, less than a mile. It could cost as little as $3 million if the widening was stopped just short of the creek, which would be fine for Gilroy Foods employees, according to Plant Manager Bob Cates.
The $250,000 could cover the cost of a stoplight by itself, but Gage said widening is the first priority.
This is one of many projects supposed to be funded by a voter-approved half-cent sales tax in 1996, but with the bigger projects from the measure finished – widening U.S. 101 from San Jose to Gilroy, for instance – there’s concern whether there will be enough money left.
Gage promised the project long ago and has made it his top priority for whatever 1996 measure funds are left over from under-budget projects.
The highway narrows from four lanes to two in front of ConAgra’s Gilroy Foods garlic-processing plant, which has more than 600 employees – the city’s third-largest work force.
When it’s time for the 200-plus day-shift workers to go home, they often have problems getting out. On Friday afternoons, when weekend traffic coincides with the end of a shift, the combination of this and the snarled 152/156 intersection about 10 miles east often leads to gridlock all the way back to U.S. 101 in Gilroy.
Pombo’s district includes Morgan Hill, but the Gilroy city limits – including the project site – are in the district of Rep. Mike Honda, D-Campbell.
