Paso Robles City Council approves redesign of Creston Road Corridor
—The Paso Robles City Council is moving forward with plans to improve the Creston Road Corridor, which runs from South River Road to Niblick Road, at the meeting held Feb. 6. In early 2017, community members were invited to attend forums to share their opinions on improvements. The council votes were four “yes” and one “no” in plans to proceed, and the total estimated cost for the project is $8 million.
The council voted to adopt the Preferred Alternative Design as the conceptual plan, directed city staff to apply for an Active Transportation Program (ATP) grant, and hired North Coast Engineering to prepare the Plans, Specifications and Estimate (PS&E) for $787,000. The ATP grant encourages active transportation without vehicle use, such as biking, and the city will apply for a $4 million grant. This will be matched with $4 million by local funding. If the grant is not approved, the project will continue with all the funding coming locally with the supplemental sales tax dollars, which is used almost entirely for road improvements. The grant approval will be known by next fall or winter.
The Creston Road Corridor improvements include providing ten foot wide striped median turn lanes, five foot bike lines and three foot bike buffers on both sides of the road, seven foot parking lanes, and the travel lanes would be between 11.5 to 13 feet wide. Other issues include improving curbs, gutters and sidewalks if they are not up to standard, along with installing them if missing. It was determined that all curb ramps did not meet the Americans with Disability Act requirements, which will mean the improvement of 40 to 45 ramps and construction of ten to 20 curbs.
Construction will begin in summer 2019 at the earliest and last around six to nine months for the actual project, according to public works director Dick McKinley. The improvements will take place in school zones during the summer and move away during the school year, in order to not disrupt school traffic. The two main travel lanes from Capitol Hill Drive to Rolling Hills Road were recently resurfaced to address concerns since the projected actual construction would not commence for over a year.
