In just a few short weeks, Christopher High School students will have their long-awaited sidewalk on Santa Teresa Boulevard’s east side, which will allow for safe southbound walking after school, and northbound on the way to school.
Crossing the intersection of Santa Teresa Boulevard at Sunrise Drive is not as tricky as it once was for students, since the pedestrian signals there are now up and running.
But there’s still no sidewalk for about a fifth of a mile once pedestrians pass the Sunrise Drive intersection when walking southbound on Santa Teresa Boulevard, and some students who forgo the mandatory alternate route trot along the road shoulder or jet across on their bikes, skateboards or sneakers – timing and dodging traffic in the process.
Conditions should improve soon, however. Students will still have to cross over at Sunrise Drive once the new sidewalk is completed, but it will be a far safer and shorter trek once the city completes the long-anticipated sidewalk construction.
In the meantime, students are encouraged by CHS administration to use the footbridge near Cooper Place instead of meandering through the dangerous sidewalk construction zone.
The footbridge may be a little out of the way, but until construction is complete, it’s a safe and reliable route.
CHS Principal John Perales says he won’t be able to rest easy until his students have a safe route to walk after school.
“I worry about the kids walking home without a sidewalk there,” he said. “Ninety-eight percent of the students adhere to the rule about not walking where there is still no sidewalk on Santa Teresa, but some students have received citations from a security resource officer for walking in the no pedestrian zone.”
The sign along the construction area indicates that the sidewalk will be completed by May; however, Henry Servin, Gilroy’s new City transportation engineer, anticipates an early February completion date.
“As long as the weather cooperates and there isn’t much rain, the sidewalk should be finished and ready for public use by the first week of February,” he said.
Syncing traffic lights at Sunrise Drive, West Day Road and East Day Road along Santa Teresa Boulevard was another potential strategy for making it safer and easier for motorists and pedestrians who commute to, from and near CHS.
“We are in the data collection phase and trying to work with the VTA’s Congestion Management Agency to show evidence that there truly is a need to adjust traffic lights for improved traffic flow along the Santa Theresa at Sunrise corridor,” Servin said. “These things take time and we are going through the process to try and get that done.”
When the Dispatch last reported on this issue exactly one year ago, former City Traffic Engineer Don Dey said the traffic signal improvements have been a work in progress since the school opened in 2009. Now, the city is helping the Gilroy Unified School District finish the job because “they just never completed everything to be done to get them all (the traffic signals) fully functional.” At this time, the signals are only operating where pedestrians are currently permitted to walk.
The school’s growing enrollment has also been a cause of the increased traffic, Perales said. CHS now enrolls 1,656 students, and expected enrollment for the 2013-2014 school year is approximately 1,700 to 1,800 students. When the school opened three years ago, enrollment was at 650.
