Dear Red Phone,
“Before the construction began that now connects Butterfield to Watsonville Road at Monterey Rd, the most dangerous part of that intersection was the absence of a safe pedestrian walkway across the culvert on the north side of Watsonville west of Monterey Rd., and the absence of a paved path connecting to the sidewalk a block further west. Now the construction seems to be completed and the culvert has been rebuilt, but there is still no completely paved, connected, and marked pedestrian path on the north side of Watsonville Rd. There is a partially paved bike path, but even that does not connect to the cement paving at the corner. When will the construction be completed to make a paved, safe walkway for pedestrians?”
Dear reader, the following is a response from Associate City Engineer David Gittleson with the City. We hope you find this helpful:
“Thank you for the reader’s comments. The Butterfield Boulevard South Extension project primary scope was always to build the roadway and bridge structure over the railroad tracks. Making pedestrian connections to the residential areas to the west, as suggested by your reader, was not a part of the project but is worthy goal in the future. Typically, the infill road and sidewalk improvements such as those along the north side of Watsonville Road between the Butterfield project and the nearest existing sidewalk are built by developers when vacant properties are developed. With no development activity proposed at that location at this time, the City will consider installing a temporary walkway when it performs additional overlay and sidewalk repair work along Watsonville Road to the west later this fiscal year.”
