Amador County – Amador County Transportation Commission and Caltrans hosted a public meeting Wednesday, discussing the two preferred Pine Grove Corridor projects that were recommended by members of the ACTC Stakeholders Work Group.
The project is 13 or more years out, ACTC Project Manager Neil Peacock said, as he led a short presentation on how they went from 14 alternative routes to two, plus the obligatory “no-build” option, which must do an Environmental Impact Report on having “no project.” He said the next step is deciding a project, or a hybrid of existing options, and which one to put through the EIR process.
ACTC Executive Director Charles Field opened the Q&A portion, asking: “When is the earliest it might be built?”
Peacock said “I wouldn’t hope for any miracles to see anything before 2024.” He also said that the $40 million they expect to have for the project was just an estimate of what they could collect by 2024 for the project. The next step was to determine a project to create environmental documents for, in partnership with Caltrans.
Field said they need a hybrid, and the “$40 million is just a target. We don’t even know if we will have that. It’s not waiting in the bank, it’s a target. And every $10 million more that we aim for” makes it “that much less likely.” He said as the project becomes more real, Caltrans will support it more.
Caltrans has said it preferred a five-lane through town project, at an estimated $54 million, and Caltrans Pine Grove Improvement Project Manager Grace Magsayo told the group she will work with ACTC to try to get a three-lane, through town project that might work.
Caltrans Branch Chief Gail Miller said when a project is found, it will go to the Caltrans Project Development Team, which will make a decision, and District 10 Director Carrie Bowen will sign the environmental document.
Stakeholder member John Carlson said he liked the transparency of the public meetings, but wondered why Caltrans did not allow public input during their decision making process.
Magsayo said “this meeting alone is transparent enough.” She said they are well aware of all the work the stakeholders have done, and how the community feels. She said the Project Development Team is a group of technical, legal, and environmental experts that need to move along at an expert level.
Miller said if the public were involved, “we would never get anything done.” She said it was technical work that was not done any differently than in any other state highway organizations.
Consultant Leslie Bono said any project that has community support will be better for Caltrans to support.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
