Photograph by Robert Scheer
A ceremony last week launched the installation of median barriers along Highway 85.
By Sarah Lombardo
Median barriers on Highway 85 are only 45 working days away from being a reality, according to Paul Hensley, Caltrans District 4 interim chief deputy.
At a groundbreaking ceremony at the Prospect Road overpass at Highway 85 last week, Hensley said construction of the barriers, which began Monday, will be completed by the first or second week in January.
The $1.38 million project is being funded by the state, through the Highway Account Safety Fund. Assemblyman Jim Cunneen, who secured the funding and negotiated the project with Caltrans, said local transportation projects will not be affected.
The median barriers are designed to reduce the number of fatalities on the 13-mile stretch of highway from Cupertino to south San Jose. Since Highway 85 opened in 1994, police have recorded at least nine incidents of vehicles crossing over the median and into oncoming traffic. This year alone, six people have been killed in crossover accidents, including a pregnant woman and her twins, both of whom died after an emergency Caesarean.
Many public officials and victims' family members said the barriers were overdue.
Assemblyman Jim Cunneen, who hosted the ceremony, said that all of the deaths could have been avoided, and admonished officials for not having required the barriers before the highway opened.
According to state safety regulations, however, median barriers are required only when a median is less than 44 feet wide or if there has been a high rate of crossover accidents. Highway 85's median strip varies from 46 to 50 feet wide.
"This was entirely avoidable if we'd just had common sense when [the highway] was first built," Cunneen said.
But Cunneen said it was not the time to place blame. "What we need to do is make sure our community is safe. ...Today marks the beginning of a long-overdue process."
Dennis Polyniak, whose daughter Elizabeth Polyniak died in a crossover accident in May, expressed frustration that the barriers came too late for his daughter.
"I'm angry that the barrier wasn't put in in the first place. It's tantamount to building an airplane without seatbelts," he said. "That freeway was funded with tax dollars, and they could have waited an extra month and found the money to put a barrier in."
Polyniak thanked Cunneen for his involvement in the barrier project, but said he wanted other public officials to learn something from the series of events.
"We don't need any more statues in parks that no one's ever going to look at. We don't need any more tree-lined streets," he said. "We need safety."
Fred Herschbach, a member of the Operating Engineers Local Union No. 3 and who worked on the original construction of Highway 85, attended the ceremony. Herschbach said he knew a friend of one the people who had been killed in a crossover accident and showed up as a concerned citizen. "I'm just glad they're finally doing it. It was definitely overdue," he said.
Saratoga Vice Mayor Gillian Moran said she agreed that the median should been a part of the highway from the beginning, but expressed relief at the start of construction. "I'm very pleased that we're finally getting the barrier started," she said.
The Saratoga City Council was active in the move to reduce accidents on Highway 85. In addition to lending support to Cunneen's effort to make the barriers a priority, councilmembers Aug. 7 gave the California Highway Patrol permission to use radar on the highway. Highway 85 is currently one of only two highways in California that use radar to enforce speed limits.
John Maxfield, CHP public affairs officer, said although speed was not a factor in any of the deaths on Highway 85, the strong presence of the CHP and the reduced speeds have kept the road safer.
Maxfield said even after the barrier is completed, the CHP will continue its effort to slow people down on that highway.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, December 4, 1996.
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