GONZALES — Gonzales City Council, Planning Commission and School Board are looking at traffic conditions within the city and determining where the future growth will take roads.
With new housing development on the horizon, the latest pavement reconstruction project is on Gloria, Inverson and Johnson Canyon. The project is estimated to cost $10 million with coordinating efforts with the County of Monterey and Salinas Valley Solid Waste Authority.
City staff are overseeing the preparation of the construction documents, and the construction contract will be awarded by the County, which will perform an inspection. The project is receiving funding from the Salinas Valley Solid Waste Authority to cover a portion of costs.
“We’ll be working with the county,” said Public Works Director Patrick Dobbins. “We have had several meetings. We were in front of the Solid Waste Authority on May 15 talking about this.”
Salinas Valley Solid Waste Authority is on the hook for a significant portion of the road construction funding because of the landfill expansion. The design firm for the Gloria Road project is Harris and Associates.
The street maintenance within the city was also part of the discussion, which had its last street inspection three years ago, according to Dobbins. The City has a Pavement Management Program that calls for all streets to be inspected every five years and develop maintenance plans based on funding.
Dobbins prepared a list of seven top traffic and roadway topics of concern to Gonzales residents.
Among those concerns was funding for street projects, the Fifth Street bridge, access to and from the Industrial Business Park, truck traffic on collector streets to and from Highway 101, bike lanes and sidewalks, speeding on residential streets and roadway connections for future growth area.
The City of Gonzales receives funding for streets through state-allocated money from the gas tax estimated at $235,000 for day-to-day operations and repairs. The second source is Measure X funding through sales taxes at about $185,000 per year. Senate Bill 1 brings $145,000 to the city each year and the final source is Developer Impact Fees.
“Gonzales was the first city to borrow against the proceeds from Measure X and that’s how the Alta Street project happened,” Dobbins stated. “We borrowed $2.5 million on the order of 2 percent. In my opinion, an excellent deal terms.”
By borrowing against Measure X, the City of Gonzales used about 12 years of Measure X funding and made a significant street project happen. For the past two years, the funding from Senate Bill 1 was used toward Alta Street as well. The City is planning to commit SB1 funding to the Gloria Road project in the future.
Developer Impact Fees have also been dedicated to the Alta Street project.
