[dimondpark]

Construction Set To Begin On Fourth Caldecott Bore

Posted: 12:38 pm PST January 8, 2010
OAKLAND -- Relief for East Bay commuters may finally be in sight as the long-awaited construction of a fourth bore for the Caldecott Tunnel is set to begin as soon as Jan. 15th, Caltrans announced Friday.

That date signals the end of the required 55-day waiting period after Caltrans awarded the construction contract to Sylmar-based construction firm Tutor-Saliba, project spokesman Jeff Weiss said.

The four-year project will add a fourth bore to the busy tunnel, which connects Oakland and Contra Costa County via state Highway 24.

The third bore was added to the Depression-era tunnel in 1964, and was the last state highway tunnel built in California until work began on the Devil's Slide tunnel project in September 2007.

Adding a two-lane, 3,390-foot bore will eliminate the need for the existing central bore to alternate between westbound and eastbound traffic for the morning and evening rush hour.

Motorists should notice changes almost immediately, according to Weiss, as crews start "clearing and grubbing" the brush in the construction areas surrounding the proposed portals.

Crews will then set up their staging areas and construct a temporary sound wall at the west portal, Weiss said.

The noise buffering is part of a settlement with a consortium of community groups known as the Caldecott Fourth Bore Coalition that sued Caltrans in 2007 over environmental concerns relating to the project. The agency agreed to a number of other measures, including using low-sulfur diesel fuel to power equipment.

The actual boring of the tunnel will cost about $215 million of the project's $420 million total cost, Weiss said.

http://www.ktvu.com/news/22186431/detail.html

Approx. 200,000 cars a day traverse the Caldecott Tunnel. This is long overdue.

Anyway, some pics.