ECR: The Renewal Project Goes off the Rails

This is a tough post for me to write.  That's why it has taken me two weeks to write it since the Caltrans virtual meeting about the El Camino Real Roadway Renewal project on July 14th.  I really want to see some things fixed on ECR as noted here, here here and here.  But sometimes the cure can be worse than the illness and from what I heard, this is one of those times.  The virtual meeting had numerous presenters each with their own piece of the project, but the overarching view was obscured by bureaucracy and over-regulation along with some over-engineering.  We heard about this "once in a generation project" which is an understatement--a generation is 20-30 years--and while the project may take half of that to complete (certainly more than the 2 years stated), we will be living with the results for much longer---if it happens.

Caltrans presented three options:  the No Build alternative, the Roadway rehab without undergrounding the utilities and the Roadway rehab with undergrounding.  At least the horrendous "road diet" option reducing regular users to one lane in each direction with a center turn lane and all sorts of other goodies for people who don't actually drive on ECR is "not viable".  The good news ends there, because once the anti-eucalyptus forces start drooling over the two Roadway rehab options, we are headed for a dramatic changes that will take years to recover.  PG&E and the city council want the utilities underground.  I'm still not sure why when you consider the historic, nationally-registered eucalyptus grove will be a casualty of that move.  The renderings of what a denuded ECR would look like were all "20 years post-build" and even after 20 years still looked like a sad shell of the canopy we have now.  One astute questioner noted that they drive south on ECR every weekday morning and there are several months of the year when the sun is directly in the eyes of drivers.  Only the towering eucs make for a partial sun shield that surely makes for safer driving and pedestrian crossings.  Been there, experienced that.  And it's not just sun blindness--remember this incident?

Given how long it took to take out just one eucalyptus at Howard Ave. a couple years ago (about a week), we could be faced with a year or more of horrific traffic closures as there are 390 of them in the tree rows.  The claim is that only 3% of them are in "good condition".  And yet they go on year after year with minimal incidents.  It seems like selective replacement as we have been doing is better than a wholesale removal and replacement with 7 to 14' trees.

As for the rough sidewalks pushed up by tree roots, one of the Caltrans personnel finally said what I have been thinking for years-- why not just "bridge over slightly raised roots".  It is apparently allowed and would work in the places that are not too bad.  Throw in some serious digging at the 4 or 5 known flooding areas to clear roots and debris and rebuild the drains and you have what I would call a "Light Build alternative".  Public comment can be made at www.ElCaminoRealProject.com until next Monday, August 2nd.  I'm not sure it will do much good at this point, but a light build is all we need.

Comments

[hollyroller@gmail.com]

I am sure "Normal/Vaccinates" understand Global Warming...The "Flat earthers," maybe not. Anyway, it is a Fact that more traffic forces "commuters" to seek Public transportation. Therefore more infrastructure, good jobs, less pollution, etc. How can that not be a reality, if we all want to live any longer?

[Joe]

LOL, holly, are you arguing that we should encourage more congestion in the name of less pollution?

On an unrelated topic, I've been remembering how many delays there were in the Avenue project as they found very old, buried private gas tanks. Back in the day, people had their own tanks--before service stations became popular. Anyone care to guess how many they will find on ECR when they start digging, how long it will take to "remediate" them and how long that will stretch out this "two year project"??

[hollyroller@gmail.com]

Not "congestion" less Cars.
RE: ECR Timeline. That may be as important as the Project. Do the people who "Only" use ECR as a commute, who do not live in Burlingame(especially the people who live on both sides of the street) really care how long the project takes? The effect on the Community?
There really is no "Good Way" to manage the PR.

[Paloma Ave]

Holy - You might want to have your caregiver lookover what you post. It seems to be more incomprehensible with each post.

Just a thought, meant in a positive way.

(Paloma Ave and Joe in 2022?).

[hollyroller@gmail.com]

I suspect a difficult day a the senior center. If you need to take your anger out on someone that's Cool.
Better than Beating a Spouse or Family Pet.

[Handle Bard]

I challenge anyone to drive north up El Camino at this hour and tell me that the eucalyptus trees on the west side of the street are not important to driver and pedestrian safety.

[LM]

Before we really dig these trees out, one urgent thing we need to do is to build more traffic lights. The big eucalyptus trees block the view of checking the traffic and when there is no traffic light, it is super dangerous to merge on ECR. But we live here and need to do this everyday. It is super frustrating and not safe at all.

[Mart]

The uneven sidewalks are cool when you skateboard in Burlingame area.

[Handle Bard]

It's not a bug. It's a feature. Also quite fun on a mountain bike.

[JP]

You guys can joke around all you want about chicken*hit bumps in the sidewalk but imagine if the disaster we have been living through on El Camino for weeks went on for YEARS. This is ridiculous. I'm happy about the new water main but CUTTING DOWN ALL OF THE TREES BECAUSE THEY CANNOT FIGURE OUT DRAINAGE is insane. We will be crawling up and down El Camino over steel plats FOR YEARS. Wake up people. Tell Brownrigg and Beach to get their *hit together.