Executive Director's Report

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR STEVE HEMINGER’S REPORT TO THE
COMMISSION MEETING OF SEPTEMBER 23, 2009

SUMMARY OF EVENTS:

Will Kempton Farewell Dinner
Sacramento, July 30

Along with hundreds of his other closest friends, I attended the farewell dinner for departing Caltrans Director Will Kempton, who is now CEO of the Orange County Transportation Authority. Will’s deputy, Randy Iwasaki, became the new director of Caltrans effective August 1st.

Diridon Station Discussions
San Jose, July 31

I attended a meeting hosted by Assemblyman Jim Beall and San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed to discuss possible governance options to oversee improvements to the Diridon rail station in downtown San Jose. As you know, that historic rail terminal is already served by the Caltrain and ACE commuter trains as well as the Capitols intercity trains. In the near future, it is also slated to be served by the BART extension to Silicon Valley as well as high-speed trains from San Francisco and southern California. As a result, a major redevelopment of the station and its surroundings is planned.

511 Transit Website Honored
August 10

MTC’s 511 Transit page at www.transit.511.org has been cited by Government Computer News as one of the 10 great government Web sites nationwide for 2009 and hailed as “a heroic act of interagency coordination.”

RTAC Meetings
Los Angeles (August 5) and Sacramento (September 1 & 16)

Since your last meeting, the Regional Targets Advisory Committee (RTAC) on which I serve has met three times in an attempt to conclude our work by the September 30th deadline of advising the California Air Resources Board (ARB) on establishing regional greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. To cut to the chase, here is our principal conclusion from page 6 of the draft report: “As ARB undertakes the target setting process, the Committee recommends that regional targets be expressed as a percent per-capita greenhouse gas emission reduction from a 2005 base year. ARB would use this metric to set a single statewide uniform target that could be adjusted up or down to respond to regional differences.”

TBPOC Site Visits
Vancouver and Shanghai, August 24-28

The Toll Bridge Program Oversight Committee (of which I was recently elected chair) made two site inspections at the end of last month in order to develop an action plan to mitigate ongoing delays in the fabrication of the self-anchored suspension (SAS) element of the new east span of the Bay Bridge. In Vancouver, we visited the facility where the engineering “shop drawings” are being drafted and in Shanghai we visited the actual fabrication site itself. We were accompanied at both stops on the trip by the prime contractor for the SAS, the joint venture of American Bridge/Fluor.

Labor Day Bay Bridge Closure
September 4-8

As is well known by now, the planned Labor Day closure of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to “roll-out” a section of the old east span and “roll in” a connection to the new detour structure south of the bridge was a rousing success. During the closure, inspections of the 70-year old east span revealed that one of the reinforcing “eye bars” in the cantilever truss structure had failed since the last inspection two years ago. Thus, the planned roll out/roll in operation also featured an unplanned emergency repair of the cracked eye bar. When all was said and done, the bridge re-opened to traffic only a few hours after the scheduled time of 5:00 a.m. Tuesday morning.

Caltrans and its contractors deserve tremendous credit for this breath-taking bit of engineering work and improvisation. Although dozens of talented people contributed to this success, I would like to single out Brian Maroney of Caltrans for special recognition. Brian has had his hands full for years with the complicated design of the new detour structure and its especially difficult eastern “tie-in” to the existing bridge. Not only did he help pull off that feat, but he also led the frenzied effort over the weekend to design the repair to the failed eye bar. My hat is off to him.

University of Virginia Conference
Charlottesville, September 10-11

I was invited to speak at the Miller Center for Public Affairs on the prospects for the next authorization of the federal surface transportation program. The conference was co-chaired by two former U.S. Secretaries of Transportation, Norm Mineta and Sam Skinner. The event also featured a keynote address by former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt.

TIGER Grant Submissions
Washington, September 15

Last week was the deadline for submission of grant applications for the $1.5 billion discretionary TIGER program funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Following Commission approval of a Bay Area candidate list in July, we worked closely with Caltrans on the final list of proposed projects that was submitted by the State of California.

ITS World Congress
Stockholm, September 21-25

Chair Haggerty and I are unable to be present at today’s Commission meeting because we are attending the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) World Congress in Stockholm. You may recall that San Francisco hosted this event a few years ago. As you also know, these ITS technologies are a major feature of MTC’s efforts to improve mobility in the Bay Area, ranging from our 511 program for traveler information to our FasTrak® and TransLink® electronic payment programs to the Freeway Performance Initiative.

California High Speed Rail Authority
Sacramento, September 23

Randy Rentschler is attending the California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) meeting this morning in Sacramento to help advance the region’s interests in securing federal stimulus funding for the projects included in the San Francisco/Silicon Valley Corridor Investment Strategy adopted by the Commission in June. I am pleased to report that the CHSRA staff recommendation includes all of the major investments endorsed by the Commission. The one exception is the $400 million “train box” for the new Transbay Transit Center, which was previously submitted by Caltrans for Track 1 federal stimulus funding.

ARRA Status Report

This month’s status report for projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) shows that we continue to make considerable progress in obligating the various highway and transit funds that the commission has programmed to specific projects. We have awarded nearly a third of those funds to contractors that are already constructing these projects.

• Bay Area ARRA Project Status | September 16, 2009 (PDF)
  
  

Chart of the Month

The congressional debate over federal surface transportation reauthorization is often dominated by the competing claims of “donor” and “donee” states. Donor states receive less federal funding than their motorists pay in federal gas tax revenue, while for donee states the situation is reversed. In the face of recent General Fund bailouts of the ailing Highway Trust Fund, however, the Brookings Institution has called into question whether gas tax payments should be the only yardstick for establishing donor or donee state status. In particular, Brookings has published a chart comparing each state’s share of the Equity Bonus program (which is linked to its gas tax payments) versus its share of General Fund contributions. While California receives just under 7% of Equity Bonus money from the Highway Trust Fund, our state generates nearly12% of federal General Fund revenue.

• Equity Bonus Funding vs. General Fund Contributions, Fiscal Year 2008 (PDF)
  
  

MTC Operational Statistics

The monthly report on the performance of MTC’s operating programs:

• MTC Operational Statistics (PDF)
  
  

Upcoming Events

October 7-8 — Walk 21 Conference, New York
October 18-20 — UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference
October 21 — Commission Workshop, Omni Hotel, San Francisco