Work will get under way next month to tear out two controversial traffic roundabouts on Vineyard Avenue, located approximately mid-way between Montevino Drive and Ruby Hill on Pleasanton’s east side.
The council voted 3-1 to approve a low bid of $544,660 by Granite Construction Co. of Santa Clara to handle the project. Granite, which also owns and operates the asphalt manufacturing plant on county land just north of Vineyard, will remove the roundabouts and replace them with regular 12-foot travel lanes. The company also will widen Vineyard where the roundabouts are located to allow turning and merging lanes in and out of Thiessen Street, and to add six-foot-wide bicycle lanes.
The decision, with Mayor Jennifer Hosterman opposed and Councilman Matt Sullivan absent, ends the public debate that started two years ago when the newly aligned Vineyard Avenue, with the roundabouts, opened to traffic. The new roadway replaced the narrow, winding old Vineyard Avenue, which is scheduled to be turned into an equestrian and pedestrian pathway that would also be able to accommodate emergency vehicles.
Public Works Director Rob Wilson said that because the reconstruction work on old Vineyard has not started, that street can again be used temporarily while Granite Construction works on the roundabout removal project. Because Granite must get its permit and insurance papers approved, it could be mid-July when the work actually gets started.
“Since they’ll have the roadway to themselves with no traffic to interrupt work crews,” Wilson said, “I expect this project can be completed fairly soon. I hope that’s before school opens on Tuesday, Aug. 29. Vineyard is heavily used on school days by Ruby Hill residents to reach elementary, middle and high schools that are located west of Montevino.”
The council’s action was not unexpected. Council members Steve Brozosky, Cindy McGovern and Jerry Thorne had voted together earlier to seek bids to remove the roundabouts, with Hosterman and Sullivan opposed. The three said they were not on the council when the decision was made to realign Vineyard Avenue and install the roundabouts.
At the time, the school district was planning to build Neal Elementary School on property it owns just south of the roundabouts. These traffic circles were considered the fastest and safest way to move school-bound traffic into the school site, with traffic engineers arguing that conventional traffic signals would delay traffic on Vineyard in both directions at those times.
The roundabouts also were seen as a way to slow vehicle speeds on Vineyard.
Because the cost of the roundabouts was included in the $6-million Vineyard realignment project, which the school district approved and agreed to help finance, the total costs of first installing them and then, two years later, taking them out are not known.
Once removed, Vineyard Avenue will include a two-mile-long stretch from West Ruby Hill Drive to Montevino without any traffic controls. Wilson said traffic engineers will survey motorists’ speeds at that time to determine what the speed limit should be or if another traffic light should be installed. Traffic lights generally cost $200,000.
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