As Broadway Goes, So Goes HSR

The idea of a "grade separation" that would either a) raise the railroad tracks or b) dig down to lower the road or c) some of each to allow for better traffic flow has been knocking around for decades.  Things appear to be coming to a head since

The City of Burlingame is hosting a community meeting on Thursday, March 31, 2016 at 6:30 p.m. to summarize the findings of the grade separation study, answer questions and present 3D animations of two of the alternatives that were evaluated. The meeting will be held at the Burlingame Public Library, Lane Community Room.

The City and its project team developed and evaluated six design options based on feedbackreceived during the first two community meetings and have narrowed it down to two options.  The goal of this meeting is to take feedback from the community on the remaining two options
to determine if there is a community preference for one of the designs. This is the third and final community meeting of this study phase.

Naturally, one of the key concerns is how this project would lay the groundwork (literally) for high-cost rail up the Peninsula.  Now that the build has shifted to coming to Northern California and knowing that an HSR train cannot "porpoise" up and down as it travels though Millbrae, Burlingame, and San Mateo--what happens at B'way has more impact than one might think.  It is a key intersection for a variety of reasons!

Comments

[Bruce Dickinson]

Folks, listen, Joe is right. The last thing we want to do as a community is lay the groundwork that will aid and abet HSR and make it easier for that three-lettered organization to split our city with trains barreling down California Ave. One less overpass they have to build will be cheaper for them and make the whole boondoggle more viable. Bruce Dickinson believes that CalTrans may be in cahoots with HSR, basically undertaking projects that will pave the way for overpasses/underpasses in a more stealthy manner (tax dollar shifting) but that will directly help the financial case for HSR.

Trust me, I know my way around a negotiation, and Burlingame, if we can put up with traffic around Broadway for a few more years, should absolutely hold out on this railway overpass project and force the issue with HSR and have those buffoons make the case and pay for it. Yes, it will result in a few more years worth of inconvenience, but this is yet another hurdle for the project and every incremental hurdle should be used as a weapon to stop this thing. The more rights of way, overpriced land acquisitions, over/underpasses, tunnels, bridges HSR is going to have to construct, the more expensive and hence less viable it will become.

This is not the preferred way of dealing with other parties, but given the other party, namely the HSR, is an irrational actor, you basically have to starve it into submission and make them fight for every inch of track. Also, when is our City Council, including its new members, going to decide to show up to the game and oppose HSR? It seems like they never even contemplated the option of taking the Broadway overpass from the table. At least it should enter the conversation and debate. C'mon guys, this really isn't that difficult. Bruce Dickinson would probably do well to have a teach-in class: Negotiation 101. Armed with some real skills, this Council could do a much better job with the very basics of what it means to wield power and use it wisely!

[Send In The Clones]

Yes, and Caltrain "Electrification" is also mostly prep work for HSR, as many readers understand, right?

http://www.caltrain.com/projectsplans/CaltrainModernization/Modernization/PeninsulaCorridorElectrificationProject.html

Every reader should know who is "At The Wheel" of The State, County, and Local Government...

I'm not sure if Governor Jerry Brown is more like "Weekend At Bernie's", or "The Muppets", but the HSR folks and all their related brothern run the entire show, folks. That's just how it is. People vote and act mostly for what will impact their own bank account in the short term.

You should hear local politicians parrot the party line, "Well, at least support Electrification of Caltrain!" ...with a big Chesire Cat grin of who's going to butter their grits either now or later.

The State-County(same thing)-Local Governments are a run-away train, and I'm sorry, but we're going to need to get the other 75% of our neighbors off the couch to vote these Clones back to their construction companies and architecture firms and cement companies to get reason and balance and honesty back on the agenda.

Same Clones, different day.

[Jennifer]

http://www.mercurynews.com/john-horgan/ci_29730485/john-horgan-north-burlingame-prepares-be-divided-by?source=rss

"Let there be no doubt about the sort of solution envisioned for the Caltrain rail crossing at Broadway in Burlingame at some point in the future.

It is all but certain that the preferred city option, assuming funding for it can be secured (not a sure thing), will be a combination of a lowered roadway and raised tracks, about 13 feet each way. The arrangement would be similar to what you see in Belmont and San Carlos. And that would include a walled berm.

Such a structure beginning at Broadway would extend north and south for about a half-mile, gradually dropping to existing grade level, according to an artist's rendering. The southern berm would end north of Oak Grove Avenue. Heading north, a berm would approach extensive BART storage facilities.

The Broadway intersection is one of the worst and most congested in the entire state, according to Burlingame officials who helped to present limited traffic options for the intersection last week.

It was clear that a second alternative, placing Caltrain tracks in a trench with Broadway's roadbed running over it, won't be feasible; there are too many problems with it. Among the most troubling are costs, a high water table in the area, major eminent domain issues and other significant construction constraints.

The preferred option, with a cost in the neighborhood of $250 million, has difficulties too but not on the scale of a trench at that location.

The matter of a berm has always been of great interest among residents and others who do not wish to see Burlingame divided in half by an unsightly and intrusive barrier....."