Local leaders working together to make improvements on Route 25
and Highways 152 and 156
Gilroy – Solutions to nightmare traffic east of Gilroy are crystallizing as leaders in San Benito and Santa Clara counties position the region for a slice of $20 billion in state bond money.
The bond, Prop. 1B, earmarked for highways, levees and other public infrastructure, does not reach voters until Nov. 7. But if approved, the region will have barely two months to show state officials a cohesive plan for upgrades along state Route 25 and Highways 152 and 156. All three roads connect Gilroy and its southerly neighbors to the Central Valley.
Officials in both counties have agreed that widening Highway 152 and Route 25 are the top priorities. They have dismissed the idea of creating a new interchange with U.S. Highway 101 just north of the counties’ shared border – a move that would require cutting through swaths of pristine farmland in San Benito County to make way for an east-west connection.
The solutions mirror ideas in last year’s Southern Gateway Transportation and Land Use Study, a report issued by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority. The document offers six high-priced combinations of road improvements, each with a price tag between $700 million and $1.5 billion.
“We’re not working off that script anymore,” said Bob Davies, executive director of the San Benito County Council of Governments, a lead agency in the road improvement effort. Davies met for the second time in a month last week with Gilroy Mayor Al Pinheiro, Santa Clara County Supervisor Don Gage, and a host of city and county officials in San Benito County.
“The blessing of all of us being able to get together and talk about all of this is that we realize that Pacheco Pass and Hwy. 152 are the highest priority for San Benito County and southern Santa Clara County,” Davies said. “We also understand that being able to do that all at once with one large sum of money from one place is probably not feasible. Working together to try to phase in the project is the best way to do it.”
The newfound consensus represents a breakthrough for the two counties, whose officials have struggled for years to agree on a priority list of road improvements. Most recently, the area resolved a dispute over the best way to untangle traffic at the Don Pacheco Y – the crossroads of highways 152 and 156. The intersection is notorious for snarling weekend and holiday traffic for miles in both directions. Both counties have contributed several million dollars toward the overall cost of a flyover intended to keep cars and trucks moving.
“The 156 flyover is going to help some of it,” Mayor Pinheiro said, “but that’s still not going to answer all of the safety issues and congestion all the way back to 10th Street and 101 in Gilroy.”
The 10th Street corridor, which eventually turns into Highway 152, has seen a steady increase in traffic with the rise of two major shopping centers on the east side of Gilroy. Officials fear the problem will grow worse in the next decade, as 10th Street becomes an east-west artery connecting 1,700 new homes in southwest Gilroy with the shopping hub off Pacheco Pass.
The Gateway study places a $230 million price tag on widening Highway 152 – a 13-mile stretch of road between Gilroy and the Don Pacheco Y – from two to four lanes. The price tag for improvements on Route 25, which would include a new interchange with Highway 101, will depend on the final plan for connecting the road with traffic arteries to the east.
The Gateway study proposed a variety of new connections between Route 25 and Highway 152 or 156, but officials plan to work outside the bounds of the study.
“Both regions agree the route should be as far north in San Benito County as possible so as not to disrupt the economic and agricultural base in that region,” Davies said. “What we’ll be looking at undoubtedly is improvements along the existing alignment, and other alignments to improve that. There are a lot of variables there: economic, environmental, efficient movement of goods.”
The Route 25 improvements are uniquely positioned for funding under the state bond measure, but the project will have a tough time pulling down funding if officials fail to speak with a unified voice.
“In order for us to do anything and get the money we have to work together,” Supervisor Gage said. The returns from any state bond are hard to measure, and Gage warned that the region will have to cobble together millions of dollars from local, state and federal sources to complete all improvements outlined in the Gateway study.
Gage is lobbying state legislators and local congressmen to help raise funds, but nothing can move forward until officials meet on Nov. 16, when they hope to come up with a final blueprint for improvements. Then officials must sell the plan to their fellow council members and supervisors.
“We have to pick the option that’s doable,” Gage stressed. “You can go out there and say ‘I want the world,’ but you’re not going to get it.”
