$3.5 million road projects completed
From left are Ron DeCarli, executive director of SLOCOG; Paso Robles Mayor Pro Tem Fred Strong; Supervisor Frank Mecham; Legislative Assistant: Vicki Janssen, legislative assistant for Assemblyman Katcho Achadjian; Mayor Steve Martin; and Councilman John Hamon. The group celebrated the completion of two road projects in the city. Photo by Paula McCambridge
Union Road bike lanes and park-and-ride lot both ready for public use
– Two road projects are completed in Paso Robles — one to smooth the way for travel, and the other to smooth the way for growing parking needs in the city.
Dignitaries gathered at Paso Robles’ new park-and-ride lot at 9th and Pine streets Thursday to announce the completion of Union Road bike lanes and the park-and-ride lot near the transportation depot on Pine Street. The two projects total $3.5 million in construction costs and bring innovative technologies addressing environmental impact.
“This is a happy occasion; we’ve needed this parking adjacent to the downtown for a long, long time,” said Paso Robles Mayor Steve Martin as he spoke at the event.
The $700,000 park-and-ride lot has 43 parking spaces or for both short- and long-term parking, for the day or longer for those traveling by bus or train.
The site features pervious pavers and pervious concrete, which means its surface allows water to pass through it, as opposed to asphalt that causes water to run off. By allowing it to soak straight into the land it moves into the water table.
Engineers perform a demonstration showing the difference between asphalt and pervious materials. Photo by Paula McCambridge
Engineers on site performed a demonstration emptying a few gallons of water on nearby asphalt and again on the pervious pavement to show the different water reaction to each material. It proved their point as the asphalt water slowly moved across the lot, and the pervious material show very little sign that water had been poured onto it.
There are also a ADA-accessible pedestrian pathway with a pedestrian foot bridge, a drought-tolerant landscape and lighting conduits to accommodate a potential electric-car recharging station.
It was paid for by SLOCOG’s programming Proposition 1B funds ($40,000); SLOCOG programmed Regional State Highway Authority Funds ($110,000); local city transit funds and city parking-in-lieu fees (approximately $550,000).
Project Design and Construction Engineering Wallace Group, Thoma Electric, Earth Systems Pacific. The contractor was Cal Portland.
The second project was the $2.8 Union Road bike lanes that span from Kleck to Prospect roads.
The project includes striped bike lanes for about 3,000 feet, a sidewalk on the north side, repaired paving, radar speed-warning signs, streetlights and new water and gas mains.
Construction was financed by Bicycle Transportation Account (BTA) grant from Caltrans ($533,500); Urban State Highway Account (USHA) funding from SLOCOG ($237,000); City of Paso Robles supplemental sales tax funds and city union-specific plan fees, state gas tax and water enterprise funds (approximately $2,000,000).
Project design and construction engineering were performed by North Coast Engineering and Earth Systems Pacific. The construction contractor was G. Sosa Construction.
