Measure 3 upgrades could start next year
With Regional Measure 3 victorious, Bay Area commuters can look forward to $4.5 billion of transportation improvements — from a BART extension to Santa Clara to completion of Highway 101’s Marin-Sonoma Narrows and to an expansion of the region’s ferry system and express-lane network.
But eager commuters shouldn’t expect to see earthmovers and concrete trucks right away because what gets funded — and built — isn’t as simple as going down a list and getting things done one item at a time. Projects considered shovel-ready — with construction and financing plans completed — will probably be first in line for funding.
Voters approved the ninecounty ballot measure Tues-
day with 54 percent of the vote. The measure, which required a simple majority vote overall, will raise tolls on seven stateowned bridges by $3 over the next six years with $1 increases in 2019, 2022 and 2025 to pay for a list of proposed improvements to address what is considered one of the Bay Area’s most nettlesome problems.
First on the list of 35 items likely to be tackled will be the widening of a 5-mile stretch of Highway 101, known as the Marin-Sonoma Narrows, and the purchase of railcars to expand BART and San Francisco’s Muni Metro fleets. Also, the addition of more hybrid toll-carpool lanes to the regional express-lane network, extension of the SMART train to Windsor and improvements to increase the capacity of the Bay Bridge corridor.
Work on those projects could start as early as next year, said John Goodwin, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area’s transportation planning and financing agency.
But before regional officials can start handing out money for any of the projects, the nine Bay Area counties’ boards of supervisors and the Bay Area Toll Authority have to certify the election results, and the authority will need to go through the official steps of raising bridge tolls, in 2019. Those chores could take months.
State legislators who selected the menu of 35 projects when they allowed the Bay Area to put the measure on the ballot did not create a priority list, and not all of the projects can be done at once.
Jake Mackenzie, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which doubles as the Bay Area Toll Authority, said the agency will need to work with cities, counties, transportation operators and Caltrans to determine which projects are ready to go, and when.
“County by county, and for the region as a whole, the passage of RM-3 is grand news,” he said.
Several other projects are on the shovel-ready list and could also start construction in 2019. Those include projects to speed the hauling of goods in and out of the Bay Area; land purchase for a new interchange at Interstates 80 and 680 and Highway 12; an overcrossing to an east Contra Costa transit station in Brentwood; expansion of the San Francisco Bay Trail; and a light-rail link between Eastridge and BART in east San Jose.
Many of the bigger projects — like a BART extension to downtown San Jose and Santa Clara and the Caltrain extension to downtown San Francisco — will take years because they require federal funding, which can be difficult to obtain.
“There’s a good chunk of this that can go forward quickly, and some that will take a bit of time,” said Jim Wunderman, executive director of the Bay Area Council, a business group active in the campaign to pass Regional Measure 3.
Carl Guardino, executive director of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, who serves on the California Transportation Commission, which hands out state money for projects, said it’s important to establish a process that avoids politics while fairly determining which projects are ready to proceed.
“I’m one of 8 million Bay Area residents who wishes these projects were started yesterday, but not one of them could have been started without what happened yesterday,” Guardino said. “These are all desperately needed improvements, with decades of desperation and pounding the steering wheel in frustration. We should do them as soon as they’re ready to go and funding is available.”