Geneva-Harney BRT Feasibility Study CAC meeting

The next meeting of the GHCAC will take place:

Thursday, August 21
6:00pm to 8:00pm
Community Meeting Room
Visitacion Valley Public Library
201 Leland Ave, San Francisco, CA.

The agenda for this meeting should be posted in the next few days.

For information on the study, visit SFCTA.

The Geneva-Harney Bus Rapid Transit line is a proposed service envisioned to provide existing and future neighborhoods along the San Mateo-San Francisco County border with a bus connection to the border area’s key regional transit system hubs. The corridor extends from Balboa Park BART/Muni Station in the west to Hunters Point Shipyard in the east, including a connection to the Bayshore Caltrain Station. The study conducts conceptual feasibility planning and design work and initiates a cross-jurisdictional, community consensus-building process to prepare the bus project for implementation.

Quint St Caltrain Project Update

Basically, the SFCTA is dragging its feet on this so that they can put in the project that they want, which involves closure of Quint St with the possibility of a connector road that will probably never happen.  The information they just sent us Friday evening via email is the exact same as what we saw from them in November.  Nothing has changed.

They already have a plan that would work with the money that they have - replacement of the bridge in-kind, as was done with the Jerrold Ave. bridge.  They keep saying how rickety the old bridge over Quint is, but then they keep dragging things out, now looking for money to do more studies.  The studies done in 2005 showed that replacement in-kind was a viable option.  Caltrain doesn't require a four-track width at this location because, even if high-speed rail becomes a reality, they only need two tracks.

Contact SFCTA's Deputy Director for Planning, Tilly Chang at 415.522.4832 let her know that they've dragged their feet long enough and have spent enough money on studies.  It's time to replace the bridge with another bridge so that the Bayview can stay connected to the rest of the city and Caltrain can continue to operate safely.

Project Update
Selecting a design option for the Caltrain
Quint Street Bridge Replacement Project

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The issue

	Top: The existing Caltrain bridge over Quint Street needs to be replaced. Bottom: Replacement of the Jerrold Avenue bridge is complete. Top: The existing Caltrain bridge over Quint Street needs to be replaced. Bottom: Replacement of the Jerrold Avenue bridge is complete.

Caltrain has developed three options to replace the rail bridge over Quint Street, which is over 100 years old and needs to be replaced. The Authority is considering the three alternatives which have varying implications and trade-offs in terms of cost and funding, ability to support a future potential Caltrain Station at Oakdale Avenue, and vehicular access:

• Replacing the existing bridge with a berm for $20 million, closing private vehicle access under the tracks on Quint Street;
• Replacing the existing bridge in-kind for $25 million with a structure that maintains vehicle access under the tracks but would need to be rebuilt to accommodate a future station; and
• Replacing the existing bridge with one designed to accommodate future station platforms for $35 million, exceeding the available funding by $10 million. Given funding limitations, this option is not feasible in the short to medium terms.

A potential complementary project, the Quint-Jerrold Connector Road running along the west side of the Caltrain tracks, would increase accessibility to adjacent land uses and could be paired with Option 1 to provide alternate access to areas on the other side of the Caltrain tracks via Jerrold Avenue. As Option 1 costs $5 million less than the Quint Bridge project budget, these funds could help fund the majority of the estimated cost of the Connector Road.
 

What we've heard so far

Multi-agency outreach to date has included a community workshop noticed in Chinese, Spanish and English, meetings with community groups, and discussions with stakeholders about the Quint Street Bridge options. Feedback has called for:

• Increased outreach to the broader community—including limited English proficiency groups – regarding the options for the Quint Street Bridge Replacement;
• More detailed information about the design of each Bridge Replacement option;
• More detailed information about the potential Quint-Jerrold connector road, including how it would be integrated with the surrounding existing and planned street network; and
• Status and next steps for the potential Caltrain Station near the Southeast Community Facility at Oakdale Avenue.

Current status and next steps

Authority staff has requested planning, outreach and conceptual design funds for SFDPW, SFMTA and Authority staff to undertake the following tasks:

• Review the cost estimates and designs of all three Quint Street Bridge alternatives to identify any potential for value engineering and cost savings;
• Undertake transportation planning and coordination in the area including developing a conceptual-level design for a Quint-Jerrold Connector Road to better assess cost and operational feasibility;
• Coordinate with Caltrain staff on an evaluation of the system impact of adding an infill station at Oakdale (follow-on to already completed station feasibility and ridership studies); and
• Conduct a round of public outreach in April/May, to present the results of these analyses and seek community input on a preferred bridge replacement option.

Staff will present the funding request for SFDPW, SFMTA and the Authority to undertake this planning, outreach and design work to the Authority's Plans and Programs Committee at its March 20th meetingat 10:30 a.m. in City Hall, Room 263.  The Authority Board will consider the item at its meeting the following week on March 27th. Please see the Authority's website for the staff memo (PDF) to the Authority's Citizens Advisory Committee for this request and for agendas for the Transportation Authority meetings on March 20th and 27th.
We will bring a schedule of planned April/May outreach events and presentations to community groups to the March 20 Plans and Programs meeting, or you may check our Caltrain Quint Street Bridge Replacement project page for regular updates.
We anticipate a policy action at the Authority Board regarding the preferred Quint Street Bridge Replacement option in late spring/early summer.
If you have questions or would like to schedule an April presentation with your community group, please contact Colin Dentel-Post, Transportation Planner with the Authority.

SFCTA Meeting Notes: Oakdale Caltrain Station Update

Last week's SFCTA meeting covered the replacement of the structurally deficient Quint St Caltrain bridge; the Caltrain Oakdale Station status, and; the Quint St/Jerrold Ave Connector Road

Information is available at the SFCTA Website. Links to other important documents:

• Oakdale Station Design Feasibility Assessment Final Report

• Caltrain Quint Street Bridge Replacement Project Transportation Impact Analysis Study

Now you may think, but Quint and Jerrold are already connected...what's up with this connector road?  The proposal on the table is to CLOSE Quint and dogleg traffic from the western side of the Quint bridge over to Jerrold along the western side of the rail tracks.  This 26'-wide road would be narrow by modern road standards, and would only have one 5.5' wide sidewalk.  Check out Bacon St over the reservoir in the Portola - this roadway is 24'9", and gives you an idea of what we'd be dealing with.

This idea is proposed because Caltrain only has $25M for the bridge replacement, and while it would cover the cost of a new bridge that is two-tracks wide, just like the new Jerrold Ave bridge, it's not enough for one that would accommodate a future Oakdale Ave Caltrain Station, a station that would run from about 420ft east of the Oakdale tunnel to about the middle of Quint St.   This proposed station would have up to four tracks - two for Caltrain, which would stop at the station, and two for High-Speed Rail, which would not.  To keep Quint open and put a new bridge here is projected to cost $35M.  Just for comparison, the Jerrold Bridge cost $13.6M to replace, and it is 1/3 the length of the Quint Bridge, so this number seems to be in the ballpark.   The Mayor and Supervisor Cohen (who's rep Megan Hamilton was present at the meeting) have tried to work with the TA to come up with the needed $10M to keep Quint open.  Apparently, they have not succeeded (yet?).

So, the idea is to replace the bridge with an embankment, removing the bridge entirely and closing off Quint with a continuation of the berm (the artificial 20' tall embankment that the tracks lay on between the Jerrold and Quint bridges), connecting it to the other side, and then placing the tracks on top of that to build the new station around it. This may in fact be the project that is closest to being initiated. In an email to D10Watch, Tilly Chang, SFCTA's deputy Director for Planning, says, "It is likely that the Quint closure will precede completion of the connector road, due to the safety imperative of replacing the structurally deficient [Quint St] bridge as soon as possible and the immediate availability of design and construction funding for the project (Caltrain has funding in hand). That said, our goal is to move the connector road design process along as quickly as possible so as to minimize the period of time that Quint is closed without the Connector road providing alternate circulation through the area."

The connector road from Quint to Jerrold would terminate on the west side of Jerrold, where there could conceivably be some tricky traffic maneuvers as the road connects with the planned Jerrold realignment.  Since this was the first time these concepts had been presented, it sounds like there's a lot of room for proposal modification, but not a lot of time. Chang said, "We are in the very early stages of planning, and our graphic for the Connector Road is highly conceptual.  It is likely that that designers can widen the turning radius for that movement; during design, DPW will apply truck turning templates in order to accommodate large semitrailer trucks."

Connector Road Potential Project Schedule:
Winter 2011: Planning & conceptual Design
Spring 2012: Preliminary Design and Cost estimate
Summer 2012: Environmental Review/Community Input
Fall 2012: Final Design
Winter 2013: Start Construction
Funding: Up to $5M from Caltrain; Prop K; other local funds

Quint St. Bridge Replacement Tentative Schedule of Construction:
July 2013 to December 2014 (pending design consensus, environmental review)

SFCTA Oakdale Station ridership study:
Completion Spring 2012
Projected by 2030: estimated 2500 riders/day: 20% arriving on foot/bike; 40% by bus/transit; 40% by car (although no parking is proposed for the 1000 additional vehicles).

Links to important documents:

Oakdale Station Design Feasibility Assessment Final Report

Caltrain Quint Street Bridge Replacement Project Transportation Impact Analysis Study


For links to ALL projects involving the SFCTA in the Bayview, click here.