At the June 26 meeting of the Delta Stewardship Council, officials from various transportation agencies with jurisdiction in the Delta discussed how they were preparing for climate change and sea level rise, maintaining existing roads and bridges, and plan for future growth in the Delta.
Cindy Messer, Deputy Executive Officer of Planning, introduced the agenda item by saying that the purpose of the presentation was to provide information on the staff’s research and findings regarding the challenges, issues and opportunities currently faced by transportation entities in the Delta, as well as how they are preparing for future issues such as climate change and sea level rise. One of the Delta Plan’s recommendations is to consult with Cal Trans on the vulnerability of the three state highways crossing the Delta in terms of climate change and sea level rise, and this work will roll into our levee investment prioritization study, said Ms. Messer.
Even though we didn’t comment extensively on the transportation impacts of the BDCP in our comment letter, we do see this as is an opportunity to consult with and engage in discussion with the BDCP agencies around the topic of transportation impacts, and more importantly around the opportunities for mitigation to these impacts that can be coordinated with local plans and local efforts, said Ms. Messer.
She said that staff has spent a lot of time looking at the various plans and trying to play a role in coordinating efforts and that they see part of their role as continuing to help coordinate and bring consultation between state level efforts and the local efforts.
Jessica Davenport then briefly reviewed the staff report, noting that there were three recommendations in the Delta Plan related to transportation:
- One of the recommendations is for Cal Trans to propose SR 160 as a national scenic byway which could provide opportunities to improve signage and interpretation, as well as amenities for recreational access, and it would enhance the visitor’s sense of place.
- The second recommendation is that Cal Trans and local agencies plan the transportation infrastructure to meet the needs of development, sustainable community strategies, local plans, the Delta Protection Commission’s land use and resource management plan, and the Delta Plan.
- The third recommendation goes back to the Delta Reform Act, which calls for the Council in consultation with CalTrans to address the affects of climate change and sea level rise, so this element of the Delta Reform Act led to recommendation in the Delta Plan which calls on the council as part of the prioritization of the state levee investments to consult with CalTrans and consider those effects of flood hazards and sea level rise.
“Now as far as the challenges facing the transportation system, the two main challenges are the poor condition of the existing infrastructure, and also the flood risk, which is projected to increase due to sea level rise and other factors such as changes in precipitation patterns,” said Ms. Davenport. “The Council can use this briefing as an opportunity to consider how to best integrate transportation issues into the ongoing levee investment prioritization study, to provide additional consultation on BDCP, and to promote better coordination among the many transportation planning efforts that are going on in the Delta, including CalTrans climate change vulnerability assessments.”
She then introduced the panel. First, Garth Hopkins, chief of the Office of Regional Planning of the Division of Transportation Planning for CalTrans, briefed the Council on CalTrans work related to climate change adaptation. Next, Martin Engelmann, Deputy Executive Director of Planning for the Contra Costa Transportation Authority, talked about transportation issues and their plans for Contra Costa County. Then, Michael Selling, Director of Engineering Services for the San Joaquin County Public Works Department, discussed their current and future challenges to O&M of their roadways. Lastly, Sam Shelton, Associate Planner for the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG), briefed the Council on SACOGs rural urban connection strategy.
Garth Hopkins, chief of the Office of Regional Planning of the Division of Transportation Planning for Cal Trans
There are a number of state, regional, federal, and local agencies that handle transportation, began Garth Hopkins, Chief of the Office of Regional Planning with Cal Trans. “Local streets and roads are under the purview of cities and counties,” he said. “Rail systems are privately owned and operated. Sea ports usually are commissions or regional governments or city governments, and airports the same thing. Cal Trans is the owner and operator of the state highway system, and there are transit agencies, so the point there on this slide is there are a number of players on this that have an impact and a role in transportation.”
There are over 50,000 lane miles on 265 state highways, so it’s a huge system to own and operate, he said. Cal Trans also participates as much as possible at the regional and local levels, as well as with transit, bike and pedestrians, which are important for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, he said. “There are 32 million registered vehicles in California, and those 32 million registered vehicles just in one year alone drive 180 billion miles just on the state highway system, so we’re talking about a lot of traffic,” he said.
Within the Delta, there are a number of counties, cities, regional agencies, and metropolitan planning organizations that handle planning, he said. There are three Cal Trans district offices that have a role in the Delta, depending upon where that particular part of the state highway system lies.
Within the Delta region, I-5, I-80, I-205 and SR-99 traverse the Delta region; the primary state routes within the Delta are SR-4, SR-12, and SR-160 which are primarily 2 lanes and were designed for low traffic volumes, he said. There are half a million residents in the Delta, and the transportation system provides a vital role in terms of getting goods and people to wherever they want to go. There are also 50 bridges in the Delta; 30 of those bridges are drawbridges and that adds to the complexity in terms of the maintenance and operation of the system, he said.
SR 160 is built on the levee system, and we’re seeing some subsidence issues in terms of settling, Mr. Hopkins said. “It’s complex to make improvements to the route due to the environmental considerations that we have when we have to do any improvements in an environmentally sensitive area such as the Delta.”
He noted that although Cal Trans doesn’t own and operate the rail system, the Capitol Corridor traverses through portions of the Delta which will be impacted by sea level rise issues.
“Based on some information that we were able to glean from some sources, it looks like about 17 center line miles may be impacted by sea level rise in those three counties,” Mr. Hopkins said. “The land is subsiding in the Delta region, and … there are areas where we have had to do some crack seals to fill some of the cracks due to the settling of the roadway surface itself.”
He then presented a list of impacts to the transportation system from sea level rise, which includes impacts such as roadway washout, flooding of roadways, and scour to the bridges. He noted that when planning for the effects of climate change or extreme weather events to the transportation system, they have to be cognizant of these as they plan how to armor the system and minimize some of these impacts.
Cal Trans has started a three year effort to conduct a statewide vulnerability assessment of the state highway system to climate change impacts, considering the impacts of sea level rise, extreme weather events, fire, heat, and others. The assessment will be done at the district level, he said. “We’re going to have a good idea of where we’ve had problem events due to flooding, wash outs, and other events in the past, because when we’ve had extreme storms in the past, that’s going to be an indication of what will be happening in the future in what the climate scientists say with a little bit more frequency. We want to look at the impacts over the last 20 years, and where there have been some weaknesses to the state’s highway systems and where we can maybe make some changes when doing some work or some new projects to try to minimize those impacts.”
Route 37 in the northern San Francisco Bay Area is one of the first state routes that will be impacted by sea level rise, so we’re working to figure out how to address the impacts to that route. Alternatives include putting the roadway on a bridge structure, or moving it out onto a bridge over the bay, which would be easier to construct using barges, as moving inland does not look like a viable option due to environmental impacts, he said. “Just like in the Delta, there are significant environmental issues, so we have to study how we can actually minimize the impacts to the environment, and that’s going to be really challenging.”
Martin Engelmann, Deputy Executive Director of Planning for the Contra Costa Transportation Authority
Martin Engelmann began by giving some information about his agency. The Contra Costa Transportation Authority is a half-cent sales tax agency, and is a separate from the County, he said. Contra Costa has over a million residents; 19 incorporated cities and towns, 3200 miles of roadway, and 5 transit providers.
The Tri Links Study for SR 239 is one of the big projects the Authority is working on. A feasibility study has just been completed and released that looks at creating a connection between Tracy and Brentwood, and a north link with an airport connector link that would connect past the Byron Airport connecting J4 and Vasca Road; there’s a 580 freeway link which would be a shot straight north and would connect up to the Route 4 bypass, Brentwood and onward into Contra Costa County. The south link is along existing Byron Highway.
“It’s been an interesting challenge trying to weave this project through all of the environmental concerns, limitations and constraints that we have along this corridor,” he said, listing them off. “The corridor considerations are plan development, prime farmland, land acquired for conservation, alkaloid soils which house some rare plant species, and vernal pools. There’s existing infrastructure such as the wind farms and utilities, wind resource areas, the Delta Protection zone and waterways, and last but not least, the Byron Hot Springs.”
The feasibility study settled on the alignments shown here, and would include improving the Byron Highway from 2 lanes to 4 lanes, and for the I-580 link, the freeway portion, tolling is being considered, he said. Transit is part of the plan, too, with the hope to eventually extend BART from Antioch into Brentwood, which would then essentially circle the Bay by connecting up to the Ace Train in Tracy.
“The cost of this project in total is $750 million without the transit, but we think there are a lot of benefits if we could get this project constructed,” he said. “There are a lot of jobs out in San Joaquin County that are in the books in the general plans but can’t be realized because of the limitations of transportation and limitations of goods movement, so this project would enhance goods movement and would dramatically increase the speeds and save time for trips that are going from the Tracy area into the northern parts of Contra Costa County.” The project would also improve safety on the roadways, improve emergency access, and serve as an emergency evacuation route and would save over 40 million gallons of fuel annually, he added.
Note: Mr. Engelmann discussed transportation and funding for Contra Costa County in general, most of which didn’t apply directly to the Delta and so it is not included here. Please refer to the webcast for his full presentation.
Michael Selling, Director of Engineering Services for the San Joaquin County Public Works Department
“San Joaquin County has about 1600+ miles of road, nearly 300 bridges, and another 400 minor structures,” began Michael Selling, noting that a minor structure is essentially a bridge that’s less than 20 feet long.
“Our County is primarily ag and with all of those features, we have a pretty substantial transportation network,” he said. “A little more than half of our bridges are about 40-50 years old, and when they were designed, they had a 50 year design life, so a quick assessment indicates that we have a lot of bridges that need maintenance. For our bridge maintenance backlog, we’ve got about $200 million alone, and in our roads, an additional $230 million or so. So clearly, it’s imperative that we need to maintain our roads and bridges.”
Many of the county roads in the Delta are farm-to-market roads, and most are not through roads, although there are some the serve commute and recreation traffic as well.
He then presented a slide showing the road network in the Delta, noting that over 90% of the roads in the Delta are locally maintained and are shown in brown. “These are the farm to market roads that I mentioned, and they are vital for our ag economy; San Joaquin County is primarily an ag economy,” said Mr. Selling. “The other thing that’s interesting to point out is just how circuitous the roads are. There aren’t a lot of through roads; they are following levees or on levees, following waterways, and so there’s not a real direct route of getting around.”
The Delta’s soil conditions are a challenge, he said. “We’ve got a lot of organics in the soil out there, including a lot of peat,” he said. “The Highway 4 undulation is what you get when you have these organic soils, and when you couple that with a high water table, these organic soils tend to shrink and swell a lot, so that’s why you get that undulation. Highway 12 has the same kind of thing, and we have it throughout our local roads as well.”
“With the birds, the fish, and the other wildlife in the Delta, not to mention the various resource agencies that have jurisdiction, it’s pretty difficult to obtain all the environmental clearances that we need to when we work on our roads and try to maintain them,” he said. “We’ve had some projects where the various work windows due to nesting seasons or spawning seasons and even ag production, crops being harvested, have limited us to just a few weeks a year, so it makes it that much more difficult to do the maintenance that we need to do.”
He noted that while traffic flow has been down for the past several years due primarily to the economic downturn, long-term projections do show increase over time. “More traffic, more maintenance, and as I noted earlier, we’ve got a lot of work to do, but we don’t have a lot of resources to do it, so it makes it tough. It’s a huge challenge.”
“Besides traffic, the other thing that always seems to increase is regulation, and more and more unfortunately of every transportation dollar is going into the process rather than out onto the construction on the roads and bridges and so that’s definitely a challenge,” he said.
“To summarize, any transportation network is foundational to an economy, and the roads and the bridges are the primary components of that network,” he said. “Without them, goods don’t get to market, people don’t get to their jobs, or wherever else they are going. I want to note that most every trip starts on a local road and ends on a local road, so local roads are a vital component of the transportation network, and thus the need to maintain them.”
Mr. Selling said he was asked what the Delta Stewardship Council could do to help. “I’m going to assume you don’t have any money to give out, but if you do, I’m all ears,” he said. “Absent that, if you could provide some assistance with some of the coordination we need to do in order to get our work done with other state agencies, maybe the DSC could provide some assistance in that regard. The last thing I’d like to say is that I’m not very familiar with the DSC and its role, and I don’t think we’ve had any interaction on trying to get our projects through the process, but my hope is that you’re not going to make it any tougher on us.”
Sam Shelton, Associate Planner for the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG)
The Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) is a Metropolitan Planning Organization covering a six county region. “We have to answer to quite a few different folks for not just transportation issues but for land use issues in designing a long range regional transportation and land use plan, so in that respect, we’re a little similar to your council where you have a regional plan where you’re trying to get a number of different actors to follow suit, whether you have regulatory ability or maybe a handful of carrots to ask them to help you execute and implement your plan.”
Mr. Shelton said he would be speaking about the Rural-Urban Connection Strategy, which contemplates how to shape a metropolitan transportation plan or sustainable community strategy while considering land use and transportation impacts for a growing community.
“You’re talking about conflicting goals,” he said. “There’s rural economy versus environmental sustainability, identifying those rural challenges and opportunities, testing the market changes policies and economic development strategies, and determine the rural transportation and other infrastructure needs.”
With the urban-rural connection strategy, SACOG is trying to map all of the local freight connections that are hitting the state system because trucks have the ability to deteriorate the roadway so much more. “Every time you add another ton or more axles to the truck, you’re going to deteriorate the pavement that much faster, so how those trucks are hitting rural roadways for agricultural needs is important.”
“For the rural-urban connection strategy, we’re looking at all the different crops and potential land uses that are feeding into that freight system for rural and agricultural economies,” said Mr. Selling. “The biggest connection that we have between the long range metropolitan and sustainable community strategies and rural-urban connection strategy is that there’s no urban development plan in the primary zone and SACOG area. The growth is focused mainly in the secondary zone, mainly in West Sacramento, so as far as the take homes from SACOGs current planning efforts, that’s where we’re focusing on right now.”
SACOG uses models to determine how rural economies can change and what that means for land use and transportation impacts, he said. “So for instance, if you look at the area near Winters, they are growing 2000 acres of alfalfa, what happens if we change that to prunes?,” he said. “It’s going to have modeled impacts of maybe $2 million more ag value, with a return of a half a million on that investment. They use less water when they are growing that kind of crop, they are going to need more labor so different types of trips there, and you are going to have reduced truck trips just for that small change in acreage, so we can offer these tools to planning commissions or individual farmers to be able to use this model to project how their local decisions can make regional benefits.”
The model can show origin and destination points in rural areas, project trucking paths on it, parcel by parcel, and we can then use these densities for trucks to start modeling where rural investment routes should go, he said. “It’s just not federal aid routes, it’s not just where pavement is deteriorating, it has much more to do with why these areas are important, why should we invest in rural routes and economies, because we can understand those economies that much better.”
SACOG also collects data about where the trucks are going using private sector data to determine which routes trucks are using. “Frankly trucks are everywhere,” he said. “They are not just on these truck routes, and they are impacting all of our local roads.”
He then presented a graphic of the area between I-5 and SR-99 at Twin Cities Road, showing where the truck traffic bleeds into the Delta. “We can see those hotspots coming up and offer this information to our local agencies to sponsor projects and submit them into our long range plans for consideration for funding.”
“There are a lot of rural transportation issues that we recognize and we’re collecting information about, whether its urbanizing rural roads, conflicts, and accidents, safety information, farmworker transport, or whether it’s just older roadway standards with roads that don’t have shoulders for that safety,” he said. “And then just maintenance – pavement deterioration – the gas tax has not kept up with vehicle miles traveled and the buying power of that gas tax has really fallen that much farther behind.”
He then presented a slide depicting collision rates broken down by urban and rural populations. “44% of the fatal collisions come from just 13% of the population, so this is a serious safety issue for rural areas and as the urban edge continues to move closer to rural areas, we’ve been monitoring that too and that’s information we’re providing to our local sponsors,” he said.
“The next steps for SACOG have more to do with making sure that that information is getting into the right hands for planning purposes, whether its rural truck counts, planning for ag investment corridors with our rural parts of the county and unincorporated areas, exchanging better information with our CalTrans counterparts as they go through goods movement planning in District 3, and then making sure that all of these ideas and planning efforts are thrown into our next long-range plan update,” Mr. Shelton concluded.
For more information …
- Click here for the meeting agenda and materials. This is agenda item #7.
- Click here for the webcast.
