Report to Mayor and City Council
Wednesday, March 06, 2024
Consent
SUBJECT:
Title
RECEIVE AND FILE AN UPDATE ON THE STATUS OF THE MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING WITH THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (CALTRANS) REGARDING ALAMEDA STREET (SR-47) AND ITS APPLICATION TO ACCEPT ALAMEDA INTO THE STATE HIGHWAY SYSTEM (CITY COUNCIL)
Body
I. SUMMARY
Over the past several years, the City made several requests for Caltrans to include Alameda Street in the state highway system, which would require the California Transportation Commission ("CTC") to approve an application. The street currently is marked as State Route 47 ("SR-47") and is on the state route alignment but was constructed prior to the state highway as a local street and not to state highway standards and excluded from the state highway system.
In 2021, Caltrans expressed a willingness to apply to the CTC for the designation of Alameda as SR-47 but expected the process to be a 12- to 24-month process. Preparation of the application was begun by Caltrans ("Exhibit 1"). In furtherance of those efforts, the City and Caltrans negotiated an interim MOU to cover maintenance and repairs during the application period, which was approved by the City Council on October 18, 2022, and executed by all parties as of July 31, 2023 ("Exhibit 2").
Caltrans applied for federal funding to cover the cost of the Project Application and Environmental Documents to take the street into the State highway system in 2023 but was unsuccessful and does not have the estimated $5 million needed to move the application forward, especially given the State's current budget deficit. As a result, the project stalled last Fall, but Caltrans is still working with City staff on a repaving project on Alameda which would fulfill some of its obligations under the MOU.
In terms of moving forward on the project application, on January 26, 2024, Caltrans sent a letter to City staff laying out new conditions for the project to go forwar...
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