Milpitas is gearing up to resurface popular roads near the Great Mall, part of ongoing-city plans to provide smoother and safer travel for residents.
The areas in need of repair include the Great Mall Parkway between McCandless Drive and Montague Expressway, East Tasman Drive between the Interstate 880 ramp and nearby Alder Drive, and Alder Drive between Barber Lane and East Tasman Drive. All are located within a few minutes drive from the Great Mall shopping center.
City staff are seeking federal dollars to fund the estimated $4.5 million upgrade, which will include repairing and resurfacing asphalt concrete pavement, installing ADA compliant curb ramps, repairing damaged concrete sidewalk, curbs and gutters, and modifying buffered bike lanes, traffic signals and signs.
If the city receives funding, the resurfacing is slated to begin in 2026, according to Roberto Alonzo, Milpitas’s public works division manager who oversees engineering and transportation projects. The completed road will have a lifespan of 15 to 20 years.
In the meantime, Alonzo is encouraging residents to fill out an online city survey that will help staff gauge how interested people are in having these roads, and others, updated.
“It will help us identify areas of concerns from their side, like concerns about pedestrian access or bicycles access or other areas they think the pavement conditions are not up to par,” Alonzo said. “We could get that additional feed back and use that for the future for us to come up with future projects.”
A similar resurfacing project was recently completed along Great Mall Parkway between the I-880 northbound ramp and McCandless Drive, and on Thompson Street.
City Engineer Michael Silveira said the streets around the Great Mall have been worn out from decades-long developments in the area. Silveira estimates that the last time the roads were repaired in the area was in the early 2000s in order to prepare for the VTA’s Tasman East light rail extension.
“The streets have been beat up quite a bit because of recent construction over the last 20 years … and the amount of vehicles that use the arterial to connect between expressways and freeways,” Silveria said.
Other nearby roads near the mall will soon undergo a safety upgrade. Milpitas was recently awarded $500,000 in federal dollars to complete its Main Street Revitalization Project. The funding will be used for design and construction of streetlights and signal improvements along Main Street from Carlo Street to Great Mall Parkway.
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