March 2019

Kevin Hagerty told us that, in early March, the consultants to the Golden Gate Bridge District released a 400-page document with letters and comments from organizations, including the League, and the public meetings to date concerning the choices for the new San Rafael Transit Center. Responding to Kevin’s questions, Ray Santiago, GGBD Principal Planner, said that the purpose of the docu-ment was to show the status of the EIR-phase work at approximately the midpoint of the EIR process. He expects the EIR will be completed by early 2020 when organizations and the public will get their next chance to comment. Kevin hopes to get the Center’s final location in mid-2020. He added that the con-sultants are on schedule.

At our April 9 meeting, Kevin updated us on two issues:

San Rafael Transit Center: The GGBD expects to hold another public meeting in June or July this year to provide a project update on the EIR process. Richmond San Rafael Bridge: Repair work is continuing on the bridge; 600 of the 660 roadway joints have been repaired so far, and 60 more are in the repair process, resulting in westbound traffic delays. The upper westbound deck is scheduled to be installed in May and June. There has been an effort by TAM, led by its MTC rep, BOS member Damon Connolly, to al-low this third westbound lane to be used for vehicular traffic in the morning commute. At other times the lane would be available for bikers and pedestrians. The decision to proceed with this idea depends upon a number of issues:(A) Can the bridge’s thin deck handle the extra weight of the concrete barriers and the additional vehicles that will use that lane? (B) Can the deck sustain itself with the daily movement of the concrete barriers across it? (C) What will be the impact of additional traffic when the drivers reach the bridge’s Marin side? (D) How many bikers and pedestrians will be using the third lane in the morning commute hours? All these issues will be studied this year, and the results will help MTC decide whether to proceed with allowing vehicular use of the third westbound land in the future.