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Pleasanton Senior Traffic Engineer Cedric Novenario updated the retired Presbyterian men on a variety of key projects around the city recently.
One current $1 million project is relocating the turn lanes and cross walk at Valley Avenue and Northway next to Harvest Park Middle School. The time frame is limited to summer when school is not in session so the contactor has been moving quickly to remove curbs and then repour them so the crossing is available when school resumes in a few weeks.
A much longer-term project is improving morning congestion at Sunol Boulevard and Interstate 680. Before school let out, traffic backed up miles back onto First Street as South Bay employers expected people to return to the office at least part-time. Judging from my personal experience going to a weekly 8 a.m. meeting, Wednesday is the new Monday.
Pleasanton is responsible for the work on its streets and the interchange, but it’s using CalTrans land to improve the southbound entrance. Plans call for adding a second lane that will require a wider bridge. CalTrans currently is using the space as a corp yard for its own I-680 widening and improvement project so it will be a couple of years before it can even start.
Commuters now are trying to avoid the congestion by taking Foothill Road to Castlewood Drive and then coming at I-680 from the south or taking Sunol Boulevard further south.
In the meantime, the traffic dept. is trying to figure out how to improve signage so both lanes don’t back-up. The current lane guidance is way too close to the interchange.
As you might expect, his talk also included city information on the fiscal challenge it is facing. Council members are scheduled to decide Tuesday whether to put an increase in the sales tax on the ballot in November.
A 48-unit gated senior housing project on Foothill Road near the high school cruised through the Planning Commission this month and likely will face no opposition at the City Council.
Amazing how things change over time. For those of us who have been around and followed the machinations of the city, we can recall when a local developer in partnership with long-time landowner James Merritt proposed a market-rate project for that parcel. It was vehemently opposed by some neighbors down the street. Ironically, it was built on the site where Meadowlark Diary ran its diary herd before they relocated it to Tracy.
The project won City Council approval and then was successfully challenged in a referendum in 1999. When court challenges were denied, the original project died. Merritt, himself, did so when he committed suicide after the electoral and court defeats.
Sad legacy for that property.
We are not regular movie goers, but we decided to see “Possum Trot,” the film based on a true story of a Black Baptist church in the tiny eastern Texas town taking on the challenge of foster children. They were led by the pastor’s wife after her mother died and God called her to do it.
The gripping film lays out the challenges and the occasional joy that comes with that journey. The film wraps up by updating the now-grown children and their adoptive parents and a plea from Pastor Wilbert Martin and his wife Donna to join them and do something. They’ve been working the issue for 30 years.
It’s running in private showings in theaters.
Newport Academy received numerous state citations before closing Pleasanton clinicsApril 28, 2026 6:00 am
I met James Merritt years ago. He had a couple of Yamas. He walked down into the neighborhood from Foothill Road, promoting the Yamas and free cookies. He paused at Edgewood Way and looked over in the direction of his property for the longest time. I often wondered what became of the Yamas. Turns out per the publication of the map for the development, Edgewood Way will not be an ingress or egress point. It appears it will remain blocked and closed off.