Gilroy
– One month from now, Gilroy joggers, cyclists and
roller-bladers will be able to pound another couple hundred yards
of pavement on the Uvas Creek Trail, but more importantly, they’ll
be able to cross busy Santa Teresa Boulevard without confronting
traffic.
By Lori Stuenkel
Gilroy – One month from now, Gilroy joggers, cyclists and roller-bladers will be able to pound another couple hundred yards of pavement on the Uvas Creek Trail, but more importantly, they’ll be able to cross busy Santa Teresa Boulevard without confronting traffic.
The extension of the levee trail, which got under way a few weeks ago, is the first real step in the city’s plan to lengthen its exercise hotspot from near Gavilan College to Bonfante Gardens. The county eventually plans to extend it to Uvas Reservoir.
With the current extension, and a 300-yard addition last year, the two-mile trail connects Luchessa Avenue on the south to Third Street on the west side of Santa Teresa.
When completed Oct. 15, the 12-foot-wide trail will pass beneath the Santa Teresa Boulevard bridge along Uvas Creek and end shortly on the other side, connecting to the intersection of Santa Teresa and Third.
“There’ll be access in summer months, where (people) can walk down through the creek and up on the other side,” said Mitch Chuck, owner of Perma-Green Hydro Seeding of Gilroy, which is completing this extension and did last year’s. “They can go down and under, or go to the stoplight (at Third Street), up and over – take their choice.”
The most immediate benefit is the ‘down and under’ route across Santa Teresa, so southbound pedestrian or bicycle traffic doesn’t have to cross the busy street, said Bill Headley, city parks and recreation engineer.
“I think that’s a major safety precaution and it should encourage more people, hopefully, to use the levee,” he said. “It’s not a long piece, but it certainly is an important piece for safety and circulation.”
The extension will form a clover-leaf pattern like some freeway entrances and exits, so pedestrians coming down the west side of Santa Teresa from First Street – where there’s no sidewalk on the east side – can easily access the trail. Also, bicyclists who might be looking for a longer ride and are coming north on Uvas Creek Trail can pass under the bridge and come out on Third Street to easily merge with southbound traffic on Santa Teresa.
“Eventually, Santa Teresa will be an expressway, and a divided expressway,” Headley said. The two lanes of the existing boulevard will someday be southbound only, with an additional bridge built to hold northbound traffic.
“It will be a much wider street at some point in our future and we certainly don’t want to encourage people to cross the boulevard,” he said.
The extension, costing $272,000 from the city’s park development fund, is the first of several phases that will eventually connect Gilroy’s south end, near Gavilan College, with Bonfante Gardens Family Theme Park.
“This is just one little piece of, hopefully, a grand and very vital system of trails in this community and hopefully will be valued as much as the public streets are,” Headley said.
The next extension, to the south end of the trail, should happen within the next two years. Instead of ending just .75 miles south of Luchessa Avenue, the trail will reach to the first set of fields build in the city’s planned sports park south of Luchessa and west of Monterey Street. The first two phases of the sports park are out to bid and the 16-month construction could start in December, Headley said.
That portion of the Uvas Creek Trail extension is already funded by a $363,000 grant from the Valley Transportation Authority.
Eventually, city staff have proposed lengthening the trail to Gavilan College.
On the north end, the trail will connect to Bonfante Gardens, possibly within a couple years. The city is committed to extending the entire Debell Uvas Creek Park Preserve to the theme park, as part of its Hecker Pass Specific Plan that’s currently being developed.
“As the community extends to that area, we will continue to extend the trail,” Headley said.
Santa Clara County’s Trails Master Plan would extend the trail all the way upstream to Uvas Reservoir.
Gilroy is working on its own citywide trails master plan, and could begin public hearings on the plan before the end of the year, Headley said. The Uvas Creek Trail would be the central trail to the whole system.
