TRANSACTIONS NEWSLETTER ONLINE

Summer 2010

Project Updates:
Federal Stimulus Dollars Fuel Bay Area Transportation Renaissance

Federal stimulus funds are helping to fuel a transportation infrastructure boom in the Bay Area, with three major and long-awaited projects getting under way or starting an important new phase this summer.

An imported drilling machine that can eat through solid rock was the star of an early August groundbreaking ceremony for the tunneling portion of the Caldecott Fourth Bore Project. Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez was at the controls along with Caltrans Director Cindy McKim as the mammoth drill revved up for the crowd and began to grind away at the concrete facade of the fourth bore’s eastern portal in Orinda, kicking up a cloud of dust and debris.

“It took the Recovery Act to provide the final piece of funding for this incredible project,” Mendez said. It received the nation’s second-largest highway grant — $198 million — under the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Expected to open in late 2013, the fourth bore will relieve perennial traffic jams along this Highway 24 gateway between Alameda and Contra Costa counties. MTC has directed $157 million to the $420-million project, including $50 million in voter-approved Regional Measure 2 bridge toll moneys.

Just two days after the Caldecott event, MTC and the media turned their attention to San Francisco, where the Transbay Joint Powers Authority staged a groundbreaking for the Transbay Transit Center. The event drew a “Who’s Who” of local, state and federal officialdom, with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood making a rare Bay Area appearance. Noting the very healthy turnout for the event on and off the stage, LaHood said, “This is a big deal today in San Francisco, I can tell you that.”

Billed as the Grand Central Station of the West, the curvy, glass-clad structure with a rooftop garden will replace the aging and seismically unsafe Transbay Terminal, which served as a backdrop for the ceremony. Opening in 2017, the new facility will serve as a hub for 11 transit systems.

MTC has set aside $350 million in bridge tolls for the $4.2 billion project, including $150 million in Regional Measure 2 funds, while the federal Recovery Act provided $400 million to accelerate construction of an underground station for Caltrain and the future California High-Speed Rail system. MTC also financed erection of the Transbay Temporary Terminal, which opened in early August a couple of blocks away from the construction zone.

Federal Highway Administrator Mendez was also on hand for a July ceremony kicking off a key phase of the Presidio Parkway/Doyle Drive Project, which will replace San Francisco’s aging and seismically unsound approach to the Golden Gate Bridge. This $116 million segment of the $1 billion project involves building a tunnel and a temporary bypass. Federal stimulus funding in the amount of $129 million is helping to accelerate the Doyle Drive project. MTC has contributed $80 million in bridge tolls to the new roadway, which is slated to open in 2013.
— Brenda Kahn

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Transactions Summer 2010 Issue: Contents

• MTC Aims to Revolutionize Transit Travel With New Clipper Card
• East Span Update: At Long Last, the Suspension Span’s Tower Rises From the Bay
• Project Updates: Federal Stimulus Dollars Fuel Bay Area Transportation Renaissance
• Briefs:
  • Summer Brings Toll Hikes For Seismic Safety
  • Virtual Tools
  • “One Bay Area” Initiative Unites Region for Sustainability