Background
Numerous meetings have been held over the past month with the engineering, environmental and outreach teams for the High Speed Rail project. This included an Alternatives Analysis meeting for the public at the SamTrans Building in San Carlos that was attended by over 100 people and the first of several Policymaker Working Group (PWG) meetings that was held on Thursday, October 15th, 2009. Council Member Omar Ahmad is the City of San Carlos representative on the PWG.
High Speed Rail Alternatives Study for San Carlos
At meetings between the High Speed Rail (HSR) project engineering and design firm (HNTB) and City Staff, we have shared questions and comments regarding Subsection 4 which includes the portion of the project between Redwood City, San Carlos and Belmont. Since this is an early phase of the project design work, the San Carlos staff has asked HNTB to explore a full range of options for the segment in our City. This includes:
- Underground/Tunnel alternative
- Open Trench Underground alternative
- Overhead with Earth Berms alternative (similar to our current CalTrain route)
- Overhead “Viaduct” alternative with No Berms (similar to BART which would open up additional east/west circulation in San Carlos)
- Stacked alternative - one rail system above ground and another rail system underground
Other key considerations for the San Carlos portion of the HSR route that City Staff has highlighted for the project team include:
· Coordination with the proposed San Carlos Transit Village development by Legacy Partners and SamTrans
· Location of the CalTrain and HSR platforms and Historic CalTrain Station in San Carlos
· Impact on creeks along the HSR route (Cordilleras, Pulgas and Belmont creeks)
Design Considerations
The High Speed Rail engineers note that if the route includes a mixture of overhead and underground designs, there will be a ½ mile “transition” needed for each change. This is required due to the design standard of a 1% grade change (one foot in vertical elevation every 100 feet of horizontal distance) on the line. These standards show the interrelated nature of the design process as one city’s desires could affect another. (This is very much the case for San Carlos in light of Redwood City’s interest in the “Viaduct” design alternative and a potential HSR Station in Redwood City and Belmont’s preference for the Underground/Tunnel alternative).
Location of High Speed Rail Stations
There continues to be discussion at the project level on the location of potential high speed rail stations. The initial plans show three stations on the San Francisco to San Jose segment (San Francisco, Millbrae and San Jose). High Speed Rail program staff tells us that there will either be one additional station or no additional stations to this plan. To date, Redwood City, Palo Alto and most recently Mountain View have been considered for this additional station. There is also talk that the City of Santa Clara may also want to be included in this review. (Each station would be 1,300 feet in length which would be a sizeable presence in any community).
Next Steps and Project Timeline
Moving forward, the HSR engineering team will continue to work with the City on the alternatives analysis in the next few months. There will also be a HSR “Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS)” meeting in Burlingame on November 4th from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm and then a shorter evening session on the CSS portion of the project discussions the same day.
By December, a Draft Alternatives Analysis (AA) Report will be prepared that presents the results of the AA process to this point. The AA draft report will be reviewed by the HSR Project Management Team, California High Speed Rail Authority and Federal Railroad Administration. After this review, the Draft AA Report will be released and made available to the agencies along the route as well as posted to the California High Speed Rail Web Site. This is estimated to occur in January 2010. The Draft AA Report will come back to the Policymaker Working Group in January or February 2010.
This puts the project on track for development of a Draft Environmental Impact Report towards the end of 2011. Copies of additional information on the project is available on the City Web Site and is linked there.
Project Documents and Information from PWG Meeting of October 15, 2009
At the first meeting of the Policymaker Working Group (PWG), several documents and a copy of the meeting presentation were made available to Staff and the elected officials on the PWG. These documents provide additional information on the Alternatives Analysis process and the High Speed Rail segment from San Francisco to San Jose. Click on the links below to view and print this information.
