Safety improvements completed

CONTACT:

Reka Goode, MTC SAFE
510/464-7706

Marjorie Blackwell, MTC SAFE
510/464-7884

OAKLAND, Calif., Oct. 26, 2000...If you've driven through the Caldecott Tunnel between Oakland and Orinda during the past year and a half or so, you've probably noticed bright blue call box signs popping up along the tunnel walls. The project to replace the lighted safety signs as well as the call boxes themselves was recently completed, affecting the 48 call boxes inside the tunnel and along its approaches on Highway 24 in both directions. The new call boxes replace those that had been in place for over 30 years – ever since the third bore of the tunnel was finished in 1964.

Each new call box contains a cellular phone, powered by electricity, with an eight-hour battery backup. Caution signs are activated whenever someone lifts a call box handset inside the tunnel, flashing a warning to drivers entering and already in the tunnel that there may be trouble ahead.

The new call boxes in the Caldecott are part of the network of approximately 3,500 bright yellow call boxes that have been installed in the nine Bay Area counties over the past 12 years to allow motorists to report road hazards, accidents, mechanical breakdowns and the like, and to secure help. The network is operated and administered by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) Service Authority for Freeways and Expressways (SAFE).

Personnel from the state Department of Transportation (Caltrans) who are stationed at the Caldecott Tunnel answer calls made from the tunnel's call boxes, and contact the California Highway Patrol (CHP) as necessary.

The total cost of the installation project was $1.3 million, with Caltrans funding approximately $900,000 of the design, signage and installation expenses. The remaining project costs have been allocated by MTC SAFE, which derives its revenues from the $1 vehicle registration surcharge levied in the nine Bay Area counties. MTC SAFE also is responsible for ongoing maintenance of the Caldecott Tunnel call boxes.

In a related development, the responsibility for answering calls from the network of call boxes outside of the tunnel and throughout the region has been shifted from the CHP to a private call response center.

MTC is the regional transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. MTC commissioners oversee the regional SAFE, in partnership with Caltrans and the CHP.

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