Construction for a mini roundabout, located at the intersection of Fifth Street and Fourth Avenue, in downtown Gustine will begin at the end of this year following approval from city council approval on Feb. 17.
The project, funded through a Congestion Mitigation Air Quality grant (CMAQ) and Measure V, focuses on improving traffic flow and pedestrian safety. The city held a stakeholders meeting in January 2025 that provided an outline for the project and asked for feedback from residents and local business owners.
Danny Reed, the city’s project manager, presented the council members three different timelines for the project’s construction, which is expected to last 12 weeks, but could extend due to unforeseen circumstances such as weather delay or citywide events.
The initial timeline is to break ground in May and finish in September. The first alternative discussed would start construction in September and end in December. The third option, which was agreed on, would start in December and conclude in May 2027. The option would avoid any problems with interrupting any of the city’s holiday festivals with the weather delays being the only reason for extended time on it, Reed said.
Gustine City Manager Melanie Correa. She added that the city could give the contractors a notice that one side of the roadway needs to be available for public use on certain dates, like during the Our lady of Miracles Festa.
“Kind of the downfall of the city has made our main street the hub of all our events,” she said.
Mayor Pat Nagy said he prefers the third option because the other two options will disrupt the annual Fourth of July Parade and the Old-Fashioned Christmas event while also dealing with possible weather delays.
“If you don’t do it at [the end of the year], then you are looking at possible disruption of the old-fashioned Christmas or the disruption of our [Lady of Miracles] Fiesta and Fourth of July,” he explained. “And that’s what worries me about that day, that it runs up to Christmas, but even again, bad weather and so forth, you have delays.”
Council member Blake Giles said he preferred the third option, sharing the same sediment as Nagy with it being “the least intrusive on all the activities.”
Another downtown stakeholders meeting will be held in the future that will provide the public an update on the project, Correa said.
The city finished construction of its first-ever roundabout, located at the intersection of Fourth Street and Sixth Avenue, fully opened in December 2024, eight months after it broke ground, with the focus of improving traffic flow for pedestrians, cyclists and low-speed motor vehicles. The over $4 million project was built through a CMAQ grant ($2.4 million), Westside Regional Measure V funds ($810,000) and a combination of Measure V, City Water and City Sewer funds ($800,000), according to the news release from the California Department of Transport.
