When Gov. Gray Davis, standing just yards from the Coyote Creek
Golf Drive off-ramp, got on his cell phone Monday afternoon and
gave the orders to open all eight lanes of Highway 101 from Morgan
Hill to San Jose, including a carpool lane in each direction,
Caltrans workers standing by to pick up the road cones that blocked
the two new lanes listened.
When Gov. Gray Davis, standing just yards from the Coyote Creek Golf Drive off-ramp, got on his cell phone Monday afternoon and gave the orders to open all eight lanes of Highway 101 from Morgan Hill to San Jose, including a carpool lane in each direction, Caltrans workers standing by to pick up the road cones that blocked the two new lanes listened.
But they didn’t obey. They couldn’t – at least not right away.
Barely 10 minutes before Davis gave the orders, a big rig carrying jams and jellies from Salinas jackknifed in the middle of the Highway at the Burnett Avenue overpass north of Cochrane Road. The non-injury accident caused a one-hour traffic delay for northbound drivers, putting an ironic twist to the ribbon-cutting ceremony that hailed the widening as an improvement to Highway 101 safety and congestion.
“When I drove in here today, I heard people on the radio complaining about me and asking why they had to wait until I got here Monday for the road to be opened,” Davis quipped at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “The truth is there was some work that had to be done over the weekend and now the highway is ready … $10 million under budget and six months ahead of schedule.”
The road was ready, but due to the accident it wasn’t entirely open until 2 p.m., nearly two hours after the ribbon cutting ceremony began.
The accident happened around 12:55 p.m. when northbound traffic flipped up one of the orange cones that was blocking the two new lanes. A two-axle truck veered into the far right lane to avoid the errant cone rather than run it over, and slammed into the big rig, causing the rig to lose its front left tire.
Shortly after the accident, the cones the governor ordered lifted were indeed moved. Instead of being moved off Highway 101, they were moved across the roadway to cordon off the accident from northbound traffic.
“This was just one of those ill-timed accidents. We’re just glad no one was hurt,” California Highway Patrol Officer Terry Mayes said.
The day’s events were perhaps a fitting metaphor for the five-year, $80 million project that traversed legal scuffles, battles with environmentalists and a significant change in scope (the project was initially intended to bring six lanes, not eight).
In addition to drawing the most powerful politician in California, the day brought together representatives from the county, the City of San Jose, the City of Morgan Hill and, among others, Sig Sanchez of the Santa Clara Valley Water District.
Sanchez, who has a portion of Highway 101 named after him, has fought for nearly 50 years for various improvements to the road. Sanchez, a former county supervisor, spoke about his reluctance over the last couple decades to admit that Highway 101 bears his name. Given the predicted 12 minute decrease in commute time, Sanchez said he’d be reluctant no more.
“From now on when people ask me if that’s my freeway I’m going to say ‘yes, yes’ and don’t forget to salute when you see that sign,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez gave a brief history of the efforts to improve Highway 101 over the past five decades. He told those in attendance “If you think there was controversy over this, you’ve seen and heard nothing (compared to when the bypass off Monterey Road in Gilroy and Morgan Hill was built).”
“We fought so much and delayed so much it was eventually a good thing,” Sanchez said. “Eisenhower came up with the interstate freeway system and the feds gave us the matching funds we needed.”
The current Highway 101 project was funded primarily by a Santa Clara County sales tax passed in 1996. The governor’s Traffic Congestion Relief Program contributed $25 million which helped expand the project to its final four-lane configuration.
“I heard a lot of speakers today, but I’m not sure if any of us thanked the taxpayer yet. They’re the ones who made this possible,” Sanchez said.
