Another Bay Bridge? No way
Q Gary, apropos of the uproar about tearing down Interstate 280 north of Highway 101 in San Francisco: Is it time to bring back the idea of the Southern Crossing, a new bridge going from I- 380 near the San Francisco airport to Alameda in order to reduce the amount of East Bay traffic going to San Francisco? I believe this was first suggested in the ’ 60s, but I don’t know why ( other than anti- freeway sentiment) it never came to pass. Maybe San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee would get behind that.
Howard Baldwin
A Not likely. This idea first surfaced in the 1940s and is resurrected every decade or so. A bond measure was rejected by voters in 1972, and in the 1980s state Sen. Quentin Kopp attempted to pass legislation to help build the Southern Crossing, but it fizzled. Then in 2000, Sen. Dianne Feinstein urged the state to study an alternative crossing and that’s when the Metropolitan Transportation Commission concluded that it would cost up to $ 8.2 billion to build a bridge from Interstate 238 in Hayward to I- 380 in San Bruno.
It was one of six alternatives, and the study identified it as the only one that would significantly reduce traffic delays. But it’s just too costly to happen.
Much less costly improvements are looming, such as reconfiguring the East Bay approaches to and from the San Mateo and Dumbarton bridges to accommodate express lanes. The new east span of the Bay Bridge will have full shoulders, which ought to greatly reduce delays caused by accidents, especially on the westbound incline section.
Q Who do you call when a freeway emergency call box is out of order? I tried to report an accident from an emergency phone box on Interstate 280 — the box number is SC- 280037— one day last week but the phone was dead. I found an off- freeway pay phone to report the accident, then tried to tell the CHP dispatcher about the phone. She said she could not take that report because, although I had the box number, I did not know its exact location and their system will not allow them to enter a box number as a location.
Dick Dick Dick Reizner Reizner Reizner
San San San Jose Jose Jose
A The number to report a nonoperational call box is 800- 544- 4876.
Q What’s being built at the Vargas Road exit on Interstate 680 through the Fremont area? There’s been a lot of construction equipment there for quite a while now.
Tom Owen
Campbell
A This is the $ 318 million New Irvington Tunnel, meant to seismically upgrade the Hetch Hetchy Water System that channels Sierra Nevada runoff in Yosemite National Park to the Bay Area. Work should end in 2016.
Q Heading north on Grant Road in Mountain View, there is a leftturn arrow at the intersection of Oak and Grant. The thing is: The left turn is into a driveway. Why?
George Grant
A Here’s why: There are 20,000 car trips through here each day on this busy street and residents cannot turn left into their driveway on Grant Road during certain hours because of the heavy traffic. So the protected left turn was installed to allow them to safely turn. The green arrow- red arrow sequence comes on only when a vehicle is waiting to turn left into the driveway.
Q Oh Sultan of the Streets, Raja of the Roadways: On the west side of San Tomas Expressway, between El Camino Real and Cabrillo, trees have been coming down for months. What’s going on? I know that you know all, see all. Please enlighten me.
Douglas Herrick
Santa Clara
A Santa Clara and the county are building the first segment of the San Tomas Aquino Creek spur trail on the west side of the expressway. Tree removal is completed now, and work on the trail will be done this summer. The next segment will run from El Camino to Homestead Road and will be under construction in 2014.