Amador County – The Amador County Transportation Commission on Wednesday discussed 13 alternate routes for a future Pine Grove bypass, then narrowed the list to 3 to recommend to Caltrans for more detailed analysis.
ACTC Planner Neil Peacock said the commission was to decide the project to recommend to Caltrans, who is the “owner of the highway system.” He said “ACTC is the implementing agency, and I, of course am your project manager.”
Peacock said “we’ve spent the last 8 months going from 13 down to 3” alternatives, with the help of dozens of members of a “stakeholder working group.” The study included having “no project,” which showed 18,000 car trips in 2024, and “23,000 car trips in the design year,” which is 2030.
The tri-county area found economic constraints for the project of $41 million, and the process to narrow down the alternatives was done because “we are not going to spend a bunch of money on environmental studies on a project that we will not pursue.”
The tri-county funding agreement will take some gambles, Peacock said. One is the “gamble that we can leverage $20 million for a 50-50 match” through the State Transportation Improvement Program. ACTC Executive Director Charles Field said Alpine County could also choose to pull out of the arrangement.
Among alternate routes that were shelved for good was one proposed by Commissioners Dave Richards and Pat Crosby, which Peacock said was “my personal favorite.” But it also had $90 million cost, and it had to go. Another would have cut a 100-foot right-of-way through Pine Grove, taking many building landmarks, while widening Highway 88.
Commissioner David Plank asked if the swath could be moved southward, and Peacock said: “We looked at basically any way we could squeeze 100 feet through there and it was just not going to happen.”
Plank asked about the “practicality of businesses” with the preferred routes, and Peacock said staff did not want to misrepresent other possible concerns in the community. He said “additional analysis may warrant further elimination,” possibly due to cost increases, or Caltrans prerequisites that may be found after “embarking on more detailed analysis.”
He said the next stage will also try to get more individuals and business owners involved.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
