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Looking to enhance safety on Hwy 25, Caltrans is considering constructing a roundabout at the Shore Road intersection.
The roundabout and two other safety implementations on the main artery between Hollister and Santa Clara County result from a safety assessment conducted by the state, which analyzed collision data between April 2019 and October 2024.
According to Caltrans, data collected from the 11-mile stretch between Hollister and the Hwy 101 interchange showed 350 collisions, of which 12 resulted in fatalities and 14 resulted in serious injuries.
The other potential safety measures include installing concrete median barriers between the Hwy 101 and the Trical agricultural chemical facility near the county line and installing rumble strips in areas where motorists have crashed into medians known as K-rails.
Kathryn Kleinschmidt with Caltrans District 5 said during an Aug. 20 Mobility Partnership meeting that the roundabout at Shore Road would provide U-turn movement and put an end to broadside collisions that have occurred at the intersection.
Because the project is in its beginning stage, Kleinschmidt said “we don’t know all the details of what that would look like, but we’re trying to put it within the existing right-of-way to minimize impacts and deliver this in a timely manner.”
The Mobility Partnership is a committee made up of representatives from San Benito County, Hollister, Gilroy and Morgan Hill.
Mobility Partnership Director and San Benito County Supervisor Ignacio Velazquez suggested giving motorists on Shore Road going north on Hwy 25 their own quarter-mile-long merging lane.
“That’s a choke point,” he said. “And we don’t need that extra traffic into that roundabout. That’ll allow the roundabout to flow smoother.”
The rumble strips are in response to motorists hitting crash cushions at the beginning of K-rails, according to Caltrans.
“People are saying they aren’t seeing [them],” Kleinschmidt said.
She said Caltrans will replace the damaged cushions and K-rails and add reflectors.
“We really want to delineate it to make it more noticeable to the public,” she said.
Other elements of the project include installing speed limit signs, conducting surface grinding to improve the pavement condition, and restriping.
According to Lester Lee with Caltrans District 4, the project is in the Initiation Development Phase.
Nick Saleh with Caltrans District 4 said the development document sets the scope of work and requires approval from the California Transportation Commission before Caltrans can seek any funding.
Caltrans previously told BenitoLink the overall improvement project was estimated to cost $3.75 million, but at that time discussions did not include a roundabout.
Saleh said the initiation phase takes up to a year to complete.
Lee said state representatives met with the agricultural community and EMS on June 24 to inform them about the projects.
Caltrans has also scheduled a public meeting for community outreach on Sept. 3 at Paine’s Restaurant in Hollister at 5:30 p.m.
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