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HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 8.3 Route 580 Draft EIR (2) r r Boo- 3O CITY OF DUBLIN AGENDA STATEMENT Meeting Date: June 21 , 1982 SUBJECT: Draft Environmental Impact Statement on Operation of Route 580. EXHIBITS .ATTACHED: Letter from County Public Works Agency re: Route 580 EIS: Map of Project Area RECOMMENDATION: Consider alternatives FINANCIAL STATEMENT: DESCRIPTION: The County Public Works Agency is recommending that the Board of Supervisors support Alternative C. Alternative C provides for 8 mixed flow lanes. It is the only alternative that would provide unrestricted freeway access and travel for Dublin motorists. ' If Council desires to express its support for Alternative C,or another alternative, it would be appropriate to make such a recommendation to CALTRANS at this time. Comments on the Draft EIS are due by June 25, 1982. Note: The Draft EIS is on file in the City offices and the Dublin Library for Council review. Copies To: ITEM NO. fi 0 000 84/47 COUNTY OF ALAMEDA PUBLIC WORKS AGENCY • ;`. ate 399 Elmhurst Street • Hayward, CA 94544-1395 x 4 9 (415) 881-6470 es ources June 10, 1982 Richard C. Ambrose City Manager City of Dublin P. 0. Box 2340 Dublin, CA 94566 Dear Mr. Ambrose: Before George Gaekle left the City, he requested that this Agency, on behalf of the City, review the Draft EIS on the operation of Route 580. This has been done, and I am enclosing herewith a copy of our summary analysis of the EIS. As brought out in the summary, Alternate C, which provides for 8 mixed-flow lanes, is the only alternate that would provide unrestricted freeway access and travel for Dublin motorists. Alternate B, which provides for 6 lanes of mixed-flow traffic and 2 HOV lanes, is less acceptable in that freeway travel time is increased under certain conditions and certain on-ramps will be congested for some homeward-bound Dublin motorists. Alternatives A and D are both considered unacceptable due to the inadequate capacity and the resultant high user costs associated with increased travel time and accident costs. I. am recommending to the Board of Supervisors that they support Alter- nate C and that this information be transmitted to Caltrans for their consideration in the preparation of the Final EIS. A similar resolution by the Dublin City Council would also be beneficial . June 25 is the final date set by Caltrans to receive written comments on the draft EIS. If you would like to have someone from my staff brief you or the council on the details of the EIS, or our analysis, please call . Very truly yours, H. A. FLE' IM, JR. DIRECTO' IF PUBLIC WORK HAF:RFS:jw Enc. 0 COUNF ALAMEDA PUBLIC WORKS AGENCY ROUTE 580 - HOV LANES - ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT REVIEW SUMMARY ANALYSIS • • Four separate. alternatives for the section of Route 580 from Dublin to westerly of the 580/238 Interchange on Route 238 have been analyzed. (The impact of this section is analyzed on Route 580 from Portola Avenue in Livermore to Route 13 in Oakland.) The alternatives are: Alternative A - This alternative provides four mixed flow lanes and two HOV lanes. This type of facility presently exists easterly of Eden Canyon Road. Alternative B - This alternative provides six mixed flow lanes and two HOY lanes. There would be no separation between the mixed flow lanes and the HOY lanes. Alternative C - This alternative provides eight mixed flow lanes with no HOY lanes. Alternative D - This alternative provides a combination of Alternatives A and C. The A section would be constructed between the San Ramon/Foothill Road Interchange • and westerly of Eden Canyon Road, about one-half mile east of the Crow Canyon Road off-ramp. The C alternative would be constructed westerly to the Route 238 Interchanges. The Environmental Impact Statement is very well written and very easy to read, unlike most Environmental Impact Statements we have reviewed in this office. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS • Alternative A does not provide adequate eastbound or westbound capacity for the projected traffic. Alternative B provides congestion free travel for westbound traffic with a subalternate of two persons per vehicle in the HOV lane. With the present requirement of 3 persons per vehicle in the Hov lane there will be congestion without the BART extension. Alternative B provides congestion-free . • travel for eastbound traffic with the sub-alternate of 2 persons per vehicle in the HOV lane. However, the subalternate having 3 persons per vehicle in the HOV lane does not have sufficient capacity and causes a great amount of congestion. In addition, a large number of vehicles desiring to go easterly on Route 580 will not be able to enter the freeway at Grove Way and will be required to enter it at Eden Canyon Road after using East Castro Valley Boulevard. Page Two Alternative C provides congestion-free travel in both directions regardless of whether or not BART is extended to the Livermore Valley. Alternative D does not provide adequate eastbound or westbound capacity for the projected traffic. Alternative C is the only alternative which provides adequate capacity for the residents in the City of Dublin and Castro Valley and does not have congestion or cause the use of local streets for a bypass. In essence the freeway will function as a freeway and the local roads will not be needed as auxiliary lanes. It is therefore recommended that Alternative C be recommended to Caltran • as the only alternative acceptable to the City of Dublin and the County of Alameda REPORT ANALYSIS • Caltrans has analyzed the traffic from Portola Avenue westerly because of the congestion which would exist on Route 580 easterly of Dublin caused by HOV lanes in the westbound direction. (Presently there is congestion caused by the HOV lane operation.) • Alternative A provides four mixed flow lanes and two HOV lanes. There will be a bottleneck easterly of Crow Canyon Road where traffic leaves the HOV lane to exit at Crow Canyon Road. With the sub-alternate of an HOV lane handling vehicles containing two or more persons, the mixed flow demand is 4160 vehicles per hour in 1990 with a capacity of the two lanes being 3600 vehicles per hour. This would mean that it would be almost impossible for Dublin residents to get onto the freeway at the San Ramon/Foothill Road Interchange and be able to cross the mixed-flow traffic to get into the HOV lanes. In effect, the Dublin traffic would be confined to the mixed flow lanes whether it was HOV or not. Alternative B provides six mixed flow lanes and two HOV lanes. There is sufficient capacity so there would be no congestion in the mixed-flow lanes for the westbound traffic projections for 1990 and 2000 without a BART extension. - As far as Dublin residents are concerned, it would be possible for an HOV with 2 or 3 occupants to cross the three mixed flow lanes and get into the HOV lane. Alternative C provides eight mixed flow lanes and would have no congestion anticipated in the year 2000 with or without the extension of BART to Livermore. Alternative D leaves the existing freeway section as it is constructed over Boehmer Hill and extends it to easterly of Crow Canyon Road. . It provides for eight lanes of mixed flow traffic westerly of that point. It would provide no relief from the congestion anticipated under Alternative A in either 1990 or 2000 with either 2 or 3 persons per vehicle in the HOV lane. Page Three The estimated time of travel in the year 1990 for mixed flow traffic from Portola Avenue to the Route 580/238 Interchange under Alternative A is 30 minutes; under Alternative B is 19 minutes; under Alternative C is 19 minutes and under Alternative D is 40 minutes. It can be seen that Alternative D has more congestion than Alternative A. A savings in time for HOV users under Alternative A would be 11 minutes; under Alternatives B and C no savings in time would occur since there is no congestion in the mixed flow lanes. The savings under Alterntive D would be 7 minutes. A similar traffic analysis was made for the eastbound flow for the same section of freeway. Under Alternative A the Environmental Impact Report states "Route 238 serves as a bottleneck which limits the traffic reaching Route 580". The demands "give unreasonable congestion and delay on Route 238" and the "imbalance could not be realistically expected to occur. To more equitably distribute the congestion, it was assumed that some traffic would use city streets to divert to Route 580." This would have an adverse impact on the County of Alameda in the areas of San Lorenzo, Castro Valley and Cherryland. Alternative A provides for two sub-alternates; i .e., (1) HOV lanes extending through the Route 238 Interchange onto Route 580; (2) HOV lanes ter- minating easterly of the Route 580/238 Interchange. The primary bottleneck for both of these options is east of the Eden Canyon Road on-ramp due to the heavy on-ramp traffic. Two mixed flow lanes will already be at their capacity of about 3600 vehicles per hour; so additional traffic entering Route 580 at Eden Canyon Road will cause congestion westerly of the on-ramp which will vary from 3 to 10 miles in length. This alternative will have an adverse impact on Castro Valley in that a good portion of the traffic desiring to be on Route 580 must use Castro Valley Boulevard and East Castro Valley Boulevard to arrive at the Eden Canyon Road on-ramp. "Some of the Eden Canyon Road on-ramp traffic will be diverted from the Grove Way on-ramp since a congested freeway will not be able to accommodate all of the Grove Way on-ramp traffic demand. Congestion will occur west of Eden Canyon Road". Those using car pools will be able to bypass some of the congestion, however, carpools originating in the Castro Valley/ Hayward area will be unable to get onto the freeway at the Grove Way on-ramp. While the Alternative B traffic with its 6 lanes of mixed flow traffic and two HOV lanes has a capacity for the mixed flow traffic of approximately 5400 vehicles per hour, the traffic demand is still greater than that which can be accommodated and, as a result, traffic in Castro Valley will periodically be required to use East Castro Valley Boulevard and enter the freeway at the Eden Canyon Road on-ramp. Alternative C will provide sufficient capacity for all eastbound traffic demands. In addition, Alternative C serves Castro Valley and Hayward better since the traffic desiring to get onto the freeway at either Strobridge Avenue or Grove Way will be able to get onto the freeway and not have to use local streets to the Eden Canyon Road Interchange. r Page Four For Alternative D, congestion would occur near Eden Canyon Rod where the four mixed flow lanes would then be merged into two mixed flow lanes and one HOV lane. It is estimated by Caltrans that the length of congestion in this area will be from 2 to 7 miles. The report further analyzed traffic delays and traffic safety. Alternatives B and C have a reduced traffic delay over Alternative A and a greatly reduced accident rate per million vehicle miles travelled. The report further evaluated the accident costs and the traffic enforcement costs. It stated that both of these are greater for the alter- _ natives with the HOV lanes. The report states that there is no significant difference in the noise caused by the operation of the freeway under any of the alternatives. The air quality under Alternatives B and C will be slightly better than under Alternatives A and D since there will be no traffic congestion for the years 1990 and 2000. Alternatives A and D have severe congestion in the mxied flow lanes. The report specifically addresses the growth inducement potential for the Livermore Valley. 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