Monterey Streetscape project will bring new parking, sidewalks,
streetlamps and trees
Gilroy – After more than a year of anxious waiting by downtown business owners, the yellow caution tape has finally gone up and construction cranes have begun tearing up the city’s historic main street.
PG&E workers are now ripping up 70-year old gas lines along a two-block stretch of Monterey Street. At the same time, city officials are smoothing out contract issues with a company expected to give the street a facelift. And city consultants are hard at work putting the finishing touches on a marketing campaign to help businesses survive a year of major construction.
When the Monterey Streetscape project is complete, businesses’ doors will open onto a more spacious street with angled parking and wider sidewalks with new streetlamps and trees. But first, they have to weather 10 months of traffic detours and closed sidewalks.
Construction timeline
But not everything will happen at once, with road and sidewalk work spread across different parts of the year.
For the next six to eight weeks, the northbound lane of Monterey Street will remain open while PG&E crews work on the southbound side, replacing 1,500 feet of steel gas line installed in 1932.
“It’s old and we want to put a new one in so we don’t have to come back and tear up this street once you lay a new one down,” project foreman Joe McCrummen said.
He expected to complete the project within six weeks at the current pace.
“It’s been very good. No snags so far,” McCrummen said, noting that the city’s “contractors are coming in right behind us” to begin the streetscape project.
City officials hope to have a contractor begin work on the streetscape by the end of March, at which time both lanes of Monterey Street will be closed between Sixth and Fourth streets, according to City Transportation Engineer Don Dey. Both lanes are expected to reopen to traffic in late July, when the contractor will begin work on sidewalks.
City council members Monday night postponed awarding the $3.78-million project to the Don Chapin Company, to ensure the contractor meets federal hiring guidelines. The company, which also is performing work on the sports complex in south Gilroy, must guarantee that a certain percentage of work gets farmed out to subcontractors designated as “disadvantaged business enterprises,” Dey said.
He would not specify how far short of the target Chapin is, but said the city is now reviewing the company’s bid to make sure it “made a good faith effort” to hire disadvantaged businesses.
He pointed out that the figure “is a goal, not a requirement.”
If Chapin meets the federal guidelines, council members plan to award the bid Feb. 6.
Detours and parking
Motorists traveling south on Monterey Street already have a sense of the detours that will be in effect over the next six months. Detours at the intersections with Sixth and Fourth streets will route drivers west, toward two large parking areas along Eigleberry Street. The first lot offers daytime access to Monterey Street through a paseo in the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce building, between Sixth and Fifth streets. The second large lot also lies along Eigleberry, between Fifth and Fourth streets. There is no direct access to Monterey Street from the lot, although downtown building owner Steve Ashford said he is negotiating with City Hall on long-term plans to create a paseo through his property. Ashord’s family runs an antique store at 7547 Monterey Street, but he is working with the city to demolish the building and reconstruct a new structure that meets modern earthquake standards.
While Ashford worries about the effects of construction and the lack of parking, a fellow business owner one block south is more optimistic. Michael Brownfield, who runs a vacuum shop a few doors north of the chamber of commerce, does not expect to lose customers in coming months, as long as city officials take pains to help people navigate the area.
“It’s been real good so far in terms of customers. They’re dealing with it,” Brownfield said of the construction, stressing that “we have to educate people on where parking is.”
In addition to the larger lots along Eigleberry Street, the city has arranged for parking at several smaller sites in the downtown area.
‘Go to Jail’ on Monterey Street
It’s no Boardwalk or Park Place, but city officials hope visitors will land on Monterey Street despite the construction cranes and traffic cones. In the next 10 months, the area will host a real-life simulation of the board game Monopoly and a series of other events designed to lure people to the area, according to Kathy Filice, owner of local marketing firm Articulate Solutions.
“The shuttered buildings will be ‘Go to Jail’ spots,” she said.
But the first major event, scheduled to start in a month, will involve a citywide photo competition. Residents can submit photos for display in the windows of downtown businesses. Visitors will have to go into a local business to vote on their favorite pictures. Winning pictures will appear in a coffee table book that will be sold to raise funds for charity.
“All the events are geared to create a walking experience downtown, so people will have a reason to go there,” Filice said. “It should be a lot of fun.”
In coming weeks, motorists also will see billboards promoting the downtown area crop up along Santa Teresa Boulevard and other parts of town. The signs will direct people to the backbone of the marketing campaign – a new Web site at www.gilroydowntown.com.
The site has grown exponentially since officials unveiled it late last year. In addition to a detailed map of traffic routes and parking possibilities, it offers a database listing contact information for downtown businesses. It allows visitors to search by types of business, such as antique stores or food and dining. It also has a members section where business owners can get construction updates and review details about the phases of the streetscape project.
“My main hope is that the whole community looks at this as a positive and that they stand behind and support our downtown more than ever,” said Mayor Al Pinheiro, who has set downtown renewal at the top of his agenda. “We need the community to go down there while this construction is going on, to make the extra effort to support our businesses. We hope that when we come out of this on the other side, it will be a positive for all.”
