An additional 1 million dollars will also be included to cover the cost increases of relinquishing “old” Hwy. 49 to the County. According to a Memo from ACTC Executive Director Charles Field to the Commission, “During the weeks of December 26, 2006, and January 3, 2007, (Field) had conversations with Ross Chittenden, Chief of Programming, Caltrans Headquarters, and David Brewer, CTC Deputy Director. Mr. Chittenden said that he would work with Caltrans District 10 Director Kome Ajise concerning the proposed funding request. Mr. Brewer said that the CMIA program is not intended to cover cost overruns of previously programmed STIP projects, however, the Tri-Counties were not prohibited from submitting a CMIA application.”  Field reported that an executive decision was made by the Tri-County Transportation Commission Executive directors and they agreed to send the application.  Along with this new bit of information the ACTC has learned that there has been a great deal of misinformation surrounding the entire deal. Field explained that Amador County was informed that the Hwy. 49 bypass would not open until the relinquishment agreement was signed. “We found out that is not true and the bypass will be opened even though the County did not sign…” He reported that in the last information he received from Cal Trans they expect the bypass to be open to traffic by Feb. 20th. He then went over another inaccuracy. “We also understood that if any one city, or the county, did not sign (the extension agreement)  for the relinquishment agreement then all 3 had to start over…and that was not true,” said Field.

The paperwork and other tasks surrounding the agreement had taken a year at least to finish, so the thought was that the County’s and Cities would essentially be starting all over.  “The cities signed it and the county did not sign the extension agreement and (that) did not drag the cities down.” He stated. Another hot topic was Sutter Ione Road which was severely damaged from heavy equipment used to build the bypass. According to the recently agreed upon cost sharing agreement Sutter Ione Road is not included in the costs and it is expected that the County will file a claim for damages to the state. According to CAO Patrick Blacklock, “We are currently evaluating the extent of the damage, prior to deciding what action to take.”   

Supervisor Forster who sits on the Amador Transportation Commission said, “They won’t give another million that is pretty clear. They have fought this all the way claiming they have nothing to do with it. They have washed their hands of it.” Supervisor Forster also requested a meeting with Caltrans and the Tri-County group so that Caltrans can discuss in depth the millions of dollars of cost overruns on the Angels Camp Bypass. He said at the meeting they all attended Caltrans gave poor reasons if any for the cost overruns. “We need to find the structural inefficiencies that are in Caltrans and why these million dollar errors are going to be made. If you had people making million dollar errors in a corporation they wouldn’t be there,” he said. Field said that he would try to get a workshop set up so that Caltrans could discuss the issues in depth, he also reminded the commission that the entire agreement including the cost sharing is in concept and that several meetings and discussions still need to be held to iron out the wrinkles, including cost overruns and Sutter Ione Road. A motion was made to support the Tri-County’s direction and all the commissioners were in agreement with Commissioner Jerry Sherman voting in opposition.