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The Regular Meeting of the Silicon Valley Rapid Transit Corridor BART Extension to Milpitas, San Jose, and Santa Clara Policy Advisory Board (PAB) was called to order at 3:10 p.m. Chairperson Gonzales, at the City Council Chambers, Milpitas City Hall, 455 East Calaveras Boulevard, Milpitas, California. 

ROLL CALL

Members Present
Jim Beall
Tom Blalock
Cindy Chavez
Patricia Dixon
Ron Gonzales
Scott Haggerty
John McLemore
Gus Morrison
Peter Snyder

Members Absent
Jose Esteves
James Fang
Joel Keller

Public Presentations

Rob Means, Interested Citizen, briefly discussed the “Golden Triangle,” San Jose and Milpitas area.   Mr. Means distributed information and suggested that as an alternate to rapid transit technology and the feeder system using Personal Rapid Transit Ferry over the existing railroad tracks with an extension into San Jose.   He is accepting pledges, to pay for an environmental impact report.

Dale Warner, Interested Citizen, and a member of the Independence High School Neighborhood Association informed the Committee that their association has been in existence for four years and wish to be notified of community workshops, mailings, and meetings pertaining to the area from Hotstetter and the Alum Rock area.

Steve Soriano, Interested Citizen, briefly discussed his support of the Silicon Valley Rapid Transit Project and concern that costs do not become over-extended.

Ed Connor, Interested Citizen, briefly discussed the rail transportation system in Port Angeles, Washington. This system is an overhead “Mag Lev” that is manufactured in the United States. It is a magnetic system.

Minutes of May 26, 2004

Robert Allen noted on Public Presentations line 4 that 13.5 feet should be noted as above the “top of rail” and to delete “to” at the end of that line.

M/S/C (Blalock/Dixon) to approve the Minutes of May 26, 2004, as amended.

Agenda taken out of order.

Environmental Schedule Update

Ann Jamison, Deputy Director, Congestion Management and Planning, provided an Environmental Schedule update for the Bart Project in addition to a PowerPoint presentation on the topic.   A brief summary of the key milestones achieved on the project thus far were noted.   The BART Extension was selected as the preferred project in November 2001, and the locally preferred alternative was selected in July 2002.  The alternative project was detailed further and the conceptual engineering of that alternative proceeded through December 2003.

A Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was circulated in March through May 2004. In response to discussions with the Federal Transit Administration and Preliminary Engineering Team regarding comments concerning the Environmental Document Draft, a decision has been made to separate the Environmental Impact Statement from the Environmental Impact Report (EIR).   At this time the decision is to move forward with the EIR followed by the EIS.   The advantage of this separation is to provide an opportunity to keep things “on track,” for the total scheduling of the project. 

The schedule appeared in the Policy Advisory Board Packet with some refinements.   The revised schedule provides an opportunity to bring the value engineering proposals forward in an earlier time frame of early 2005.   The value engineering proposals would then be included in a recirculated EIS Draft, Final EIS, and Supplemental EIR if needed.  This schedule allows inclusion of the Preliminary Engineering (PE) details from the value engineering in the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) and any supplemental documents that may need to be completed.  Staff discussed this with the Federal Transportation Administration (FTA) who prefers the sequential review method. The submission of the Final Environmental Impact Statement would move forward in coordination with the conclusion of the preliminary engineering on the project.

There is a 30 day review period for the final EIR, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires only a 10 day review period, however, because of the magnitude of the project more time will be allotted for the review process. Notification and a CD-ROM of the Final Environmental Document will be available to all who commented on the Draft Environmental Document.   A Notice of Availability of the document will be posted in the newspapers and to over a 50,000 mailing list for the entire corridor. 

In conclusion, the final EIR will be released on or about November 4, 2004.   There will be a Policy Advisory Board review of the comments received on the Draft Environmental Document and the responses that were included in the Final Environmental Document on November 17, 2004.   Board action will be requested on December 9, 2004. The action will be to certify the EIR and to adopt a mitigation-monitoring plan, and to adopt the BART Extension to Milpitas, San Jose, and Santa Clara.  The Administrative Final EIS will go before the VTA General Manager and BART General Manager for their concurrence on scope, schedule, and budget prior to proceeding to the Federal Transit Administration for review in accordance with the comprehensive agreement between BART and the Valley Transportation Authority.  In addition, the BART Board of Directors will be asked to approve the project following the release of the Final EIS and also in accordance with the comprehensive agreement.

Preliminary Engineering Update 

Jack J. Collins, Chief Construction Officer for Valley Transportation Authority, presented a PowerPoint presentation illustrating the Preliminary Engineering (PE) work in progress in downtown San Jose, noting extensive drilling and boring in the soil is in progress. Testing Geotechnical boreholes are being dug along the tunnel alignment and rail corridor.   Obtaining information on the physical properties of the soil is crucial prior to excavation of the stations and tunnel. The borings are dug 120 feet in depth along the tunnel section and to 150 feet in depth at the station site, and each site takes approximately three days to collect data on soil types and strata, water pressure and shear strength of soils. There will be 45 test holes between Almaden Boulevard. and 4^th Street, with a moratorium on the digging downtown during the holiday season.  Between 4^th Street and 7^th Street 17 test holes will be dug.  Thirteen test holes will be dug between 7^th and 12^th Streets. All this information will be used in a Geotechnical Baseline Report.  The information from this report will be distributed to all the design teams for soil information to finish the design concepts on the tunnel and stations. 

Utility location is underway in Milpitas along the Union Pacific Rail Road Corridor.   Between the cities of Fremont and San Jose 500 “soft digs” are being done to loosen the soil and then vacuum the soil until utilities are located.   These digs are considered as non-destructive digs.  Mr. Collins added this information is very important when considering design concepts in the respective areas.  Value engineering proposals are ongoing concerning the tunnel and stations.  The value engineering proposals that had merits will be submitted to the Policy Advisory Committee between January 2005 and May 2005.   A concurrence of direction will be needed from the Board if the Board wishes to proceed with any of the proposals.

An agreement on the new operations and control center concept has been reached with BART along with cost sharing.   This would be a new facility next to the existing one at Lake Merritt.   The cost share has been agreed on.  Emergency tunnel evacuations for emergency situations have been discussed with a safe refuge for patrons at the other side of the tunnel.  There will be cross passages between the two tubes. The distance between the cross passages will be 300 feet to meet the safety criteria. The ventilation shafts have been reduced by two and additional analysis could result in additional cost saving, the inside diameter of the tunnel will be 17 feet 10 inches inside diameter; platform width is an issue being discussed and that sidewalk area that would be affected.  Options for the solution have been examined.  The subject of the amount of new vehicles needed for the extension is in discussion with BART as there is a disparity about what BART and VTA thinks is needed.  Both factions are working toward trying to resolve this.

The Mayor of Fremont Gus Morrison, noting that the VTA, Alameda County Transportation Improvement Authority (ACTIA), and the City of Fremont have worked out a solution for the Warren Avenue grade separation.   It appears that all work can be done at Mission and Warren and the costs will remain the same.

There has been an evaluation on how BART tracks and Union Pacific tracks are grade separated at Dixon Landing Road.   Additional value engineering and estimating is being done with cost control plans for keeping the tracks at grade and bringing Dixon Landing underneath so it will also enjoy the benefits of being separated from BART and the Union Pacific tracks. 

From a budget point of view the conceptual engineering budget is primarily funded from Traffic Congestion Relief Program (TCRP) funds that are still in place.   Of the approved EIR budget, 74 percent has been incurred, with a balance of TCRP and federal funding with an $11.7 million balance.   VTA is planning on implementing some station area studies.  Mr. Collins noted the Union Pacific Rail Road right-of-way has incurred 100 percent of the approved budget of $81.7 million.

Regarding the PE funding there is a budget of $170 million and $168 million of that budget is funded with Measure A Bonds, and $2 million funded by the Federal Government.   The Federal Government has not released the $2 million as yet but it is still in place. Design consultant efforts have incurred $14.2 million to date.   Mr. Collins concluded his report and stated that PE is on schedule to be completed by late 2006.

Announcements

There were no Announcements.

ADJOURNMENT

On order of Chairperson Gonzales, there being no objections, the meeting adjourned at 3:40 p.m.

 Respectfully submitted,

Jacqueline F. Golzio, Board Assistant

VTA Board of Directors

NOTE:   M/S/C MEANS MOTION SECONDED AND CARRIED AND, UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED, THE MOTION PASSED UNAMINOUSLY.