First Phase of Re-Striping San Benito Street Underway

For those in Hollister who have been waiting for the other shoe to drop after the city council in November 2015 voted to accept bids to re-stripe San Benito Street, the wait is over. The much-delayed work began Monday evening, March 28, and was expected to be completed Thursday night.

David Rubcic, interim city engineer, told the council during the November meeting that out of two bids on the project, Sacramento-based VSS International Inc. had submitted the lowest of $124,070.

From the outset, Councilman Raymond Friend expressed concern about the expected timeframe to complete the project. Rubcic told the council it all depended on the weather and said: “Over the years, we’ve seen we’ll have a warm streak and if that happens we’re expecting them to come in and get this done. The expectation is that it will take one or two days. If they’re going to do the slurry seal all at one time it will be one, but they have the option of splitting it, a day for half the road and a day for the other half.”

Rubcic said that 18 weeks ago and there have been any number of warm weeks over that period. City Manager Bill Avera, who showed up as city crews were preparing to begin filling the cracks at 6 and finished just past midnight, said part of the delay was because VSS was working on other jobs in Southern California.

Delays aside, Rubcic said the initial work is now underway, but residents should not expect those shiny new stripes overnight. The current portion of the project is simply filling in cracks, and that is being done by city crews, not VSS International. Rubcic said the contracted amount does not include the wages of city workers.

“What’s going on is actually the preparation of the re-striping project,” Rubcic said. “City forces are filling up the cracks that are too big for the slurry to fill. The company (VSS) that is going to be doing the slurry will come in the April 14 timeframe.”

The cracks in the center two lanes were filled the first night and those in the two outer lanes the next night. After the slurry is put down in mid-April, it will be another couple weeks before VSS returns again to actually re-stripe the street.

“They should be all done and on their way by the time June rolls around,” Rubcic said.

Avera was on the street hanging out with the crew, more or less, but he said the night before he was helping out by driving a truck.

“I’m basically working for free,” he joked, and then showed BenitoLink a block of rubberized plastic that he said is melted at more than 400 degrees, then spread into the cracks.

“Even as cold as it’s been it will dry hard enough to walk on in about five minutes, and you can drive on it in around 20 minutes,” he said. “It isn’t pretty, but it’s the least expensive way to extend the life of a road.”

Rubcic said he had not heard of any concerns from businesses since the first meeting was held Oct. 21 to inform the public of the project. At that meeting, he and representatives from TJKM, a Pleasanton-based consulting company that specializes in transportation, parking and land use, laid out the proposed changes for business owners and interested residents. The modifications, they said, were specifically designed to slow down traffic and provide a more pedestrian-friendly environment.

“This will be the first of many phases that we’re looking at and there will be plenty of things to do after this striping plan,” Rubcic said at the meeting.

At the same meeting, Mayor Ignacio Velazquez, a strong proponent of repairing the city’s streets, said: “It’s been in the works for over 30 years. When I was president of the Downtown Association in 2003, this was the dream: how do we get around downtown so we can have those traveling through actually park and shop? As we know, downtown is used by people in a hurry to get home. From my office, every time we hear an engine roar we know what that means. Someone is going to blow the stoplight. And sure enough, the car will go by at 50 miles per hour through the light.”

Two business owners who spoke of their concerns were Bill Mifsud, owner of Bill’s Bullpen Baseball Cards & Comics, and Kathina Szeto, proprietor of San Benito Bene. Mifsud explained at the time of the proposed plans to shut down San Benito Street during the Christmas holidays that he has one small retail window on Fourth Street and suggested January as a more appropriate timeframe. Szeto, whose business is on San Benito Street south of Sixth Street, said she understood all too well losing business to high-speed traffic on the city’s main thoroughfare and hoped the project would be done “sooner than later,” or order to make the shopping experience downtown more enjoyable and safer for families and out-of-town visitors.

Rubcic said March 31 that an email would be going out on April 1 to all those who attended the Oct. 21 meeting or signed up since then for updates.

“There will be additional information to those who came to the meeting, as well as the Downtown Association and the Chamber of Commerce, to let them know what’s going on and what the schedules are,” he said.