Dear Jon: Delays ending in Boronda Road widening project

It’s a project 10 years in the making — widening Boronda Road in Salinas. Jose emailed me at ‘DearJon@KIONRightNow.com’, “Dear Jon, my commute on Boronda can be a nightmare at times! When are they going to widen it?”

It’s true, the congestion on East Boronda Road is the worst in the City of Salinas during peak commute times.

Salinas Public Works Director Gary Peterson says traffic measurement is done on a scale of ‘A’ to ‘E.’ There are several hours a day that Boronda is at level E. It has a lot to do with commute patterns and people coming and going from work.”

But there’s light at the end of the tunnel, Peterson says residents can be happy about a widening project finally coming to Boronda Road as the city grows in that direction. “It becomes a major arterial, we’re currently working with property owners right now to secure right away across the street, so we can build Boronda at a width that will satisfy the traffic demand.” That width is 3 lanes in each direction at a cost of 3 to 5 million dollars.

Peterson says they’re going to start with widening about a mile in total. That will start at the Wal-Mart at San Juan Grade Road all the way to Natividad Road and Independence Boulevard.

Why has this taken so long?

“It’s assembling the funding, getting the design done and then working with the land owners.” Says Peterson, “We had a great start on it with what was going to be the Gateway Project up at Boronda and Main, where the Lowe’s was going to come at one time, but that project didn’t come to fruition. So that pushed us around a little bit.”

Peterson says the funding is there and will take about a year to complete.

Once the city hears back from the developers, who are concerned about giving up too much land, they’ll move dirt as soon as possible.