I went, but had to leave just as the presentations were starting. The topic was the first three phases of the intermodal facility and the improvements to the Richards Boulevard off-ramp and nearby streets.
Hinda Chandler, with the city's department of transportation, gave an overview of the intermodal project, pretty much old news for most folks here. The three phases are 1 (track relocation), 2 (existing station/depot improvements) and 3 (intermodal facility.)
Phase 1 got CEQA clearance in 2007, preliminary engineering is being done now. Construction should begin in mid-2009. George Montgomery presented on the track realignment. The new platforms will have upgraded passenger amenities, and a pedestrian walkway and access tunnel will run from the depot to the new platforms. The existing tracks and platforms will be removed.
Phase 2 will begin as soon as the track realignment is done. The current light rail station will be relocated to the east side of the site (running north-south west of 5th Street instead of east-west along H Street.) Local buses will park to the west of the light rail tracks, and the pedestrian underpass/walkway will be improved. The open triangular area created by the track relocation will become a temporary surface parking lot. Some of the current station parking lot will become public plazas and landscaped areas.
Phase 3, the final intermodal station, was presented as two potential scenarios--either move the station or don't. In either case, a parking structure will replace the open parking lot, and the new Greyhound depot will be located on the site: exactly where they go varies based on whether the station moves or not. If the station moves, the space it occupied will be used for potential future joint development, and a triangular covered transit plaza will bridge the space between the depot and the tracks. If the station does not move, a larger terminal extension will be built with a longer concourse that will run from the historic depot to the tracks. In the latter scenario, there will be a pedestrian bridge over the tracks in addition to the tunnel under the tracks.
Phase 2 can start as soon as the tracks are relocated. Phase 3 depends on if/when the city can get the rather significant pile of cash this project would need to be built.
Nader Kamal from the city's Department of Transportation presented the I-5/Richards Blvd. improvements project. The improvements to the Richards Boulevard off-ramp are intended to increase capacity and avoid future bottlenecks at that off-ramp. It will allow the Railyards area to receive traffic from both ends, reducing increased traffic pressure that would otherwise fall onto the already busy J Street on-ramp. In addition to the on-ramps themselves, the project would expand Bercut Drive and Jibboom Street (including bike lanes and enhanced pedestrian walkways.) The two would connect underneath the I-5 bridge via a street that would become the first portion of Railyards Boulevard, the main road through the Railyards project. Project construction would start in fall/winter 2009 and be done by 2010.
More info at
http://www.cityofsacramento.org/tran...n/1-5_richards
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