Committee Approves $27 Million Contract For Richmond-San Rafael Bridge Improvement Project
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC)’s Bay Area Toll Authority Oversight Committee today authorized the award of a $27.2 million contract to O.C. Jones and Sons Inc. of Berkeley, Calif., to construct both a third eastbound lane on Interstate 580 from the Sir Francis Drake Blvd. on-ramp in Marin County to the Richmond Parkway/ Point Richmond exit in Contra Costa and a barrier-separated bicycle/pedestrian adjacent to westbound Interstate 580 from the Tewksbury Avenue/Standard Avenue intersection in Point Richmond to Stenmark Drive near Point Molate. The committee also approved a $5.6 million contingency fund to cover any changes in the work that may be necessary
Approval of the contract with Berkeley, Calif.-based O.C. Jones and Sons clears the way for construction to begin by the end of November. The third travel lane on eastbound Interstate 580 is slated for completion within 200 working days of the start of construction. Two future contracts will be required to extend the bicycle/pedestrian path across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and to complete connections to existing Bay Trail segments on the Marin County side of the bridge. MTC has budgeted a total of $73.6 million for the three Interstate 580 Access Improvement Projects.
MTC is the regional transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.
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I'm very pleased to see the bicycle/pedestrian road project funding. I hope the MTC and the project manager will reprioritize it to finish it earlier.
I am very disturbed by this proposal to utilize the existing westbound third lane on the Richmond/San Rafael bridge as a pedestrian/bike lane. My use of the term "disturbed" is deliberate. It is disturbing to see the desires of an affluent minority -- the well-to-do suburbanites of Marin County -- supersede the need of the average East Bay commuter, the working poor who serve the residents of Marin. Most of the people who routinely commute back and forth over this bridge are traveling from communities such as San Pablo, Richmond, Oakland, El Cerrito, to go to work. They are housekeepers, gardeners, laborers, contractors, waiters and waItresses, nurses, store employees -- the service workers of Marin County. None of these people can afford to live in Marin, and none of these people will be able to ride a bike to work.
I think this proposal (which apparently has already been funded) will disastrously affect the everyday lives of thousands of low income workers, whose lives are already impacted by horrible commuter traffic on this bridge. Where is the compassion our community is so famous for? Where is the benefit to those who need it most? The approval of this bike lane accurately mirrors the current political environment, where the needs of the few (the very active and organized bike community) outweigh the needs of the disenfranchised poor. Where was the opportunity for these people to have a voice in this process? Most of them have no idea that this will be happening this year, and most of them do not have the time or energy to organize an opposition.
I should also note that I lived in the East Bay for over thirty years before moving to San Rafael in 2010. I have done this commute many times, from my home in Berkeley to work in Mill Valley, and my average commute time was well over an hour each way.