The highway interchange of Interstates 880, 280, and State Route 17 provides access between Santa Cruz, San José, Silicon Valley, the San José International Airport, and the East Bay Area.  Approximately one quarter-mile north of this interchange, the I-880/Stevens Creek Boulevard interchange is a major local corridor that provides not only access to residents of San José and Santa Clara, but also to the Westfield Valley Fair mall and Santana Row, San José’s premiere shopping districts.

As the population of the Bay Area continues to grow, so too does congestion on the State Highways.  With this in mind, the City of San José, Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, and Caltrans moved forward with a project to reconstruct and expand the capacity of these critical pieces of regional transportation infrastructure.

Principal Project Manager John Hesler, one of the transportation specialists at David J. Powers & Associates, managed and prepared the Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Assessment for the project.  Since the project was partially-funded with Federal money administered by Caltrans, the environmental process involved compliance with Federal statutes through the Caltrans District 4 environmental branch.  Through his established relationships with agency staff and commitment to early communication between stakeholders, John guided this project through the complex regulatory environment characteristic of such undertakings, and the reconstruction is now underway.