Lanes expected to open the first week of July
– three weeks ahead of Garlic Fest
Gilroy – Traffic cones that have lined Santa Teresa Boulevard for more than a year will vanish in two weeks as all four lanes of the city’s western traffic artery open to the public, according to city officials, who say that repairs expected to last a month have been accomplished in a matter of days.
Last week, workers with Granite Construction, the company hired to widen the road from two to four lanes, tore up patches of the southbound lanes exhibiting early signs of deterioration, tested for additional problems areas under city supervision and then resurfaced the entire 1.7 mile stretch of the road north of First Street.
Originally, city officials had called for Granite to tear up and resurface the entire length of the southbound lanes as a comprehensive fix to the formation of tire ruts – a sign of early deterioration. The city backed off that position in recent weeks and instead agreed to allow Granite to focus on known problem spots and test outward from those areas to determine the extent of needed repairs.
City Engineering Director Rick Smelser could not provide an exact figure on the number and size of the areas fixed.
“We were lucky,” he said. “We found that the areas beyond what we thought had to be repaired were minor. They were able to get in and get out of doing the paving work in a week.”
Workers are now cutting into the freshly laid pavement around manholes and valve boxes and installing fixtures for easier access. Smelser said Granite would wrap up that work this week, lay a final sealant on the road next week (including the portion of Santa Teresa just south of First Street), and then re-stripe the entire length of new roadway.
No fixes are necessary to the northbound side of the road that has been open to motorists for months.
The southbound lanes of Santa Teresa Boulevard are expected to fully open by the first week of July, three weeks before 100,000-plus people converge on Gilroy for the annual Garlic Festival.
Officials originally expected the project end-date to fall closer to the city’s marquee event on the last weekend of July, but Granite was “able to mobilize” much faster than expected, according to Community Development Director Wendie Rooney.
“I think the most important thing is that it’s done well before Garlic Festival,” she said. “As we started to move down this path, that was our biggest concern. We really appreciate the work Granite did to get this done.”
The quick repairs come after a seven-month construction standstill that began last October, when the city discovered tire ruts forming in the southbound lanes of the freshly paved road. City officials and Granite spent the intervening months identifying the source of the problem and trying to agree on a technical solution. Both sides agreed that the decision to pave southbound lanes during rainy winter months early in 2005 allowed for water penetration which, in turn, caused early road deterioration. They agreed to defer the question of who would bear financial responsibility for the shoddy roadwork.
After first disclosing road problems in January 2006, city officials were quick to warn of the potential for a protracted legal battle that could delay completion of the project for as long as two years. Throughout, Granite Construction representatives declined to speculate on the possibility of a legal battle, but they never accepted responsibility for the road damage.
In recent days, the city and Granite agreed to evenly split the estimated $300,000 required to repair and complete the road, according to Smelser.
“It’s a lot less than if we had gone to court. That’s for sure,” Smelser said. “Because of that, we’ve got a win-win situation.”
Kevin Kelly, a Gilroy resident who has closely followed the progress of work along the path of his morning commute, was glad to see a solution in hand.
“I think that’s a positive development,” Kelly said Tuesday. “It’s a good compromise.”
