Motorists waiting to zip down Butterfield Boulevard from
Cochrane to Tennant, bypassing Monterey Road and downtown traffic,
will have to wait a bit longer.
Motorists waiting to zip down Butterfield Boulevard from Cochrane to Tennant, bypassing Monterey Road and downtown traffic, will have to wait a bit longer.
While the road work between San Pedro Avenue and Tennant will be 90 percent complete by Nov. 1, this phase four extension will not open to drivers until the end of the year, according to Julie Behzad, senior engineer in the city Public Works Department.
When complete, the road will offer four lanes of traffic, bike lanes, sidewalks, a planted median, an extension of the Butterfield drain channel and three traffic signals. Behzad said that all water, sewer, storm drain undergrounding and paving are either complete or nearly complete.
The only delayed paving is from overhead utilities being put underground at the San Pedro and Tennant avenue intersections and from culvert installation where Butterfield crosses Barrett and Tennant avenues. All street lights, landscaping and striping are complete.
Phase four, San Pedro to Tennant, will cost approximately $4.3 million in construction, design and other costs, Behzad said, plus $2 million to buy the property. Previous phases, from Cochrane to San Pedro, cost about $7.7 million.
Butterfield Boulevard is paid for with Redevelopment Agency funds and, ultimately, is intended to connect with Watsonville Road and Santa Teresa Boulevard, forming an easy by-pass of the city’s more congested areas.
The east side of Butterfield, between East Main and San Pedro avenues was recently spruced up as a ‘linear park’ with street trees and other greenery.
Chinese Hackberry trees line a meandering pathway, with purple leaf plum trees near intersections, mulched to keep them comfortable and weed-free, according to Dave Gittleson, assistant engineer for Public Works.
“The purple plums will dress up the intersections,” Gittleson said.
The pedestrian pathway is now dotted with park benches and trash receptacles.
The $520,000 park was paid for by a $460,000 CalTrans T-21 transportation enhancement activities grant plus money saved from another project that came in under budget. Some federal funds, through CalTrans and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission were also used, Gittleson said.
The City’s Parks Master Plan calls for installing linear parks along all creeks and channels where possible.
