Whose ROAD is it?

SAN BENITO — Residents of Railroad Avenue are fed up.

The pothole-ridden street they live on has turned their drive to and from their home difficult to unbearable in recent years.

A video posted to Facebook Thursday morning showed the average struggle residents must endure when leaving their homes.

Since it was posted, the video has received more than 2,000 views and comments from residents confirming the difficulty of driving down the road.

Comments ranged from the street ruining tires and the suspension of residents’ vehicles to emergency vehicles being unable to get through with ease.

Eva Barriaga’s daughter recently moved to Railroad Avenue, but she has a hard time trying to visit her.

“From the time you get in there you try to avoid the potholes and it’s hard to do,” Barriaga said.

Residents are now looking to the city for help, but the city is not claiming ownership.

In a press release, the city stated the street is “basically on private property” and is “owned entirely by the Union Pacific railroad company and the homeowners.”

“The ‘street’ is basically on private property with a strip of land that was apparently covered in caliche by either or both of the parties to serve as a roadway to reach their landlocked homes,” the press release states. “We do understand their frustration, but the city does not legally own the road, and therefore cannot use public funds to maintain it, under current legal circumstances.”

Union Pacific spokesperson Jeffrey DeGraff said while the road encroaches on the railroad’s right-of-way, it does not belong to the company.

So who does the road belong to?

“We have discussed this issue previously with the city, but we have not come to any formal or permanent arrangement at this time,” DeGraff said.

Leslie Cortez and her family have lived in the area for nearly 30 years.

While she said the road has always been a problem, in recent years the street has gone from bad to not drivable.

“The only thing they’ve done to fix it was scrape the road,” Cortez said.

Cortez said representatives from the city have gone by to check out the road but nothing ever came of it.

To avoid potholes, homeowners often drive on the edge of the road, sometimes getting stuck and needing assistance to be pulled out.

And at night, it only gets worse.

According to the residents, it is no longer just an annoyance, but it is becoming a health and safety issue as well.

When Cortez’s grandmother needed an ambulance, Cortez said it took them nearly 45 minutes to drive the quarter of a mile stretch.

Residents said the street is so rough, even city vehicles are refusing to drive through there.

Homeowners claim that it has been more than a month since their trash has been picked up by the city.

“What if an emergency vehicle needs to get through?” Barriaga said.

The press statement from the city included that public works crews have been instructed to pick up refuse from the residences.

A spokesperson for San Benito said the city is currently looking to work with the railroad company and residents to find a solution.

DeGraff, the Union Pacific spokesperson, said although he had not directly heard of any conversations between the city and the railroad company, he could not reject that possibility and added that they “are open to having this dialogue.”