Visalia’s historic road connections have been shaped by the railroad and it is only recently that that the town has pushed to connect dead end roads that have hampered access and investment in older parts of the city
Beer spills down Oak Street in Visalia during Prohibition – Oak St was a dead end at the rail yard seen in the back.Notice tracks built into the street scape.Today the city is being thwarted by UP Railroad to expand the same design of the street further east.( click pics to enlarge)
The turn around came in 2010 with the construction of the Santa Fe bridge across Hwy 198 eliminating a bottleneck on a street that crosses virtually the entire city but because of poor access has been a virtual backwater for new development.
Now the bridge allows traffic, bikes and pedestrians to travel from one edge of the city to the other with a bottleneck remaining north of Houston where only old rail ROW remains to be paved through the heart of the northside.
Speaking of Santa Fe the old rail ROW south of town is soon to be transformed into a bike and walking path between Visalia and Tulare as it is through the city of Tulare already, soon spanning the main UP tracks with a pedestrian bridge.
Back in Visalia, Court St will get the connection as well ,a cross-town street that dead-ends at its northern leg until now.The recently approved 10 acre commercial development by Bridgecourt Homes at the southeast corner of Riggin and Dinuba Highway will result in the developer connecting Court St – a dead-end now – to Riggin. Historic Court St will now connect the city’s two big big box areas from Cameron to Riggin. Riggin is suddenly a big street for development on the city’s northern tier because it connects to Hwy 99. All this is drawing new investment to what was a dusty country road a few years ago.
Left ,Santa Fe bridge – Below,extending Court St
Likewise east of Downtown where the old rail yard and stock yard has always limited street access and resulted in this place literally being a dumping ground and backwater, a hobo jungle through most of the the last 100 years.
With the city purchase of land over a multiple block area east of Tipton this forgotten part of town,last to be asked to the dance – will soon be first. – the new Civic Center area.
Now lowly School St – not a major address in the Downtown area – will be the only street extended in this district all the way to Ben Maddox likely providing a major access point off o fBen Maddox and 198 into the new Civic Center district.
Other infrastructure work planned will be to improve Burke and underground all utilities in the area.
Completing Oak Street is another matter. As you know well the rail line blends into Oak street east as it has for years as seen in this historic photo (above).
Looking at the photo shot from across the street from the Depot you see the old freight depot,no longer there, and what was a streetless rail yard until it was redeveloped by the city.This was a tough part of town and site of the old jail,a creamery and other old industrial uses.
Once the street went east of the Depot restaurant the city has encouraged development attracting Family Health Network clinic ,the Chamber of Commerce and Buckman Mitchell Insurance as well as the city’s new Transit Center and offices.
To encourage standard development the city continued the rail-within pavement along the blocks to the east completing Oak St to Tipton.
New Civic Center area roads,or lack of them.(Click to enlarge map)
Now here is the news part -the UP will not allow the same embedded rail-in-pavement pattern east of Tipton – in the heart of where the new Civic Center was to be designed.
City officials say UP wants no pedestrians on the tracks leaving the rail only in place and forcing the city to rethink how Oak St will happen.
Also, when the railroad sold the city the land – they had a clause limiting the types of development.That has prompted the city to design the new 911 Dispatch Center as well as Public Safety building further east – near Burke and Goshen Ave – off of former UP-owned land , potentially making Oak another dead end.
One more piece of good news – Foreign Auto Works will relocate its auto repair business to Cain St by the DMV in October making room for the demo of the old service-commercial building to construct the new ImaginU Children’s Museum at the corner of Oak and Tipton whether the railroad wants it or not.
Imagin that.