Noise, safety prime concerns over rail plans

Reducing noise, maintaining safety for children and working with the potential high-speed rail development topped concerns of San Bruno residents who showed for a community meeting to discuss raising Caltrain tracks through the city by 2012.

Caltrain began an aggressive timeline to make grade separation happen in San Bruno late last year when officials learned it needed to go out to bid for the contract by June 2010 to receive $30 million in state Proposition 1B funding for the project. Previous city official concerns were a need to keep the residents abreast of the project as changes arise. Last nights community meetings gave residents a chance to share frustrations over anticipated noise, the location of the temporary station, safety for those in the area and the dividing nature of the raised rails.

Project Manager Rafael Bolin promised Caltrain was working to lessen impacts by using materials that should reduce noise, requiring contractors to work during non-peak hours and policing the construction to be sure additional nuisances do not occur.

Resident Walter Skinner had a number of questions, but also a main concern.

This will be a north/south Berlin wall in the middle of our town,he said.

Skinner, who lives close to the location of the temporary station that will be erected during construction, questioned why the station could not be farther north as it was during BART construction years ago.

Bolin explained north was not a possibility due to Interstate 380 and the requirements for putting in the various above-street level tracks.

Noise was a serious concern for residents, both during and after construction. Bolin repeated himself many times that plans are to lessen impacts on neighbors whenever possible.

I cant promise there wont be any noise for two years. But there wont be two years of jack hammering,he said.

Mike Watkins, owner of a multi-level building along the track, questioned the noise impact on the second and third stories of his building once complete, to which Bolin explained the impact would be lessened.

Watkins building is home to many children. He noted work was done during the night during previous transportation construction. Much of the proposed work for this project was again taking place at night, mainly on weekends. Watkins worried about weeknight work as it would impact the children who live in his building who need their sleep.

Its about a standard of living,he said.

Resident Alice Barnes, who served on the Citizens Advisory Committee for this project a number of years ago, felt it was disingenuous for the representatives to omit a rendering of the raised tracks with the electrification poles that will be added at a later time. Construction will not include the poles initially, but the foundation for those poles will be included, Bolin said.

Some items like responsibility for proposed plants and the extension of Posey Park have yet to be determined. Frustration was raised by the audience regarding high-speed rail.

As proposed, Caltrain would build a two-rail track that could be expanded to four tracks should high-speed rail become a reality. Caltrain provided renderings for what this larger track would look like, but since it does not have control over the high-speed rail project could not answer questions about the impacts of building the additional rails.

In November, the San Bruno City Council approved a contract with the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board for the project, but not without warnings to Caltrain officials. At the time, the council had many issues regarding the lack of project details, as well as missing citizen recommendations from previous planning meetings.

Scheduling has changed little with the box culvert construction and underground utility work beginning in May and set to be completed this October. Construction contract acquisition will be completed by June, with the contract to be awarded in July. Construction should begin by October 2010, completed by June 2012. Once complete, vehicle crossings will be at Angus, San Mateo and San Bruno avenues while pedestrian underpasses will be available at Sylvan Avenue, Euclid Avenue and the new station location.

The presentation for last nights meeting is available at http://www.caltrain.com/project_san_bruno_grade_separation.html. For more information contact the Caltrain Office of Public Affairs at 508.7726 or sbgradesep@caltrain.com.