Making waves on Highway 17: Can additional lanes end Los Gatos’ beach traffic nightmare?

A LONG-AWAITED PROJECT to alleviate Los Gatos beach traffic has received funding — but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the money needed to address bumper-to-bumper gridlock on summer weekends.

The VTA board of directors has allocated $11.3 million for the State Route 17 Corridor Congestion Relief Project as part of its budgets for fiscal year 2025-26 and 2026-27. The project aims to solve one of Los Gatos’ biggest challenges plaguing the town for decades — beach traffic jamming streets to escape the Highway 17 bottleneck between Lark Avenue and the Highway 9 interchange at Saratoga–Los Gatos Road.