County Transportation Update from Supervisor Cortese

Several months ago, I wrote to tell about the great strides being made to improve Highway 101 along the Tully Road and Capitol Expressway interchanges. I'm pleased to recap a number of other transportation breakthroughs, which you will find listed below. These are all local projects which are being developed by various agencies, including Santa Clara County.

Overall, I am very happy with the improvements we are now going to see in our local transportation network and I am grateful to have been involved in bringing these projects to life.

Santa Clara County applies for Grants for local projects

The Board of Supervisors approved the submission of grant applications for some local projects including:

•            East San Jose Pedestrian Improvement Project – if our grant is approved, pedestrian improvements such as installing sidewalks will take place in San Jose’s East Side.

•            Shoulder and guard rail improvements along Uvas Road, Stevens Canyon Road and Clayton Road – those of you familiar with Clayton Road know that parts of the road are in great need of these improvements.

Capitol Expressway Road Improvements

More good news: The Board of Supervisors recently approved some much needed repaving  work on Capitol Expressway between Silver Creek Road and Quimby Road.  This asphalt and resurfacing work will begin in September.

Capitol Expressway/Yerba Buena Exit/Highway 101

If you have traveled down Highway 101 to the South Bay recently, you may have noticed that traffic flows very smoothly past the Tully exit now.  The current back-up is at the Capitol Expressway/Yerba Buena exit.  I am pleased to announce that a contract has been approved to make improvements to the Capitol Expressway exit and to build a separate exit to Yerba Buena Road.  I am very pleased that the lowest bid was nine percent under the estimated cost.  While savings like this don’t come directly back to Santa Clara County, project savings make it easier to ask for money in the future.  Construction should begin in September. Kudos to VTA, MTC and Caltrans on getting the final pieces of this together!  For more information on this project, please visit the VTA website at www.vta.org.

BART to Silicon Valley

This project broke ground last March.  Over the past few months, demolition work has taken place near the sites of the future BART stations in Milpitas and Berryessa.  In addition, some demolition work has focused on removing the old Union Pacific Railway track.  This work is expected to continue through October.  I want to thank those of you in the area for your patience.  Like you, I am excited for the work to be completed so I can start riding BART.  For more information on this project, please visit the VTA website at http://www.vta.org/news/factsheets/inprogress.html.

Express Lanes through Sunnyvale

VTA has recently received federal funding to design an extension of the SR237 express lanes through Mathilda Avenue in Sunnyvale.  This exciting project should improve travel times for both carpool traffic and solo drivers traveling along this corridor.  I will keep you updated as more information becomes available.

Dumbarton Bridge Closure

The Dumbarton Bridge will be closed in both directions over the Labor Day holiday for seismic retrofit project work.  The closure will begin at 10:00pm on Friday, August 31st and the bridge will reopen at 5:00am on Tuesday, September 4th. 

If you have any questions, comments or concerns about these projects, please don’t hesitate to contact me at dave.cortese@bos.sccgov.org or call (408) 299-5030.

Dave Cortese

County Supervisor, Third District