Amador County – The Amador County Transportation Commission voted 5-0 Wednesday night to recommend three alternatives to Caltrans for further study for a Pine Grove Highway 88 improvement project.

The recommendation would ask Caltrans to study the project alternatives with greater detail, using state and federal environmental criteria, to see if they remain feasible in cost and impact. The vote also eliminated 10 other alternatives for various reasons, and the alternates would no longer be considered by the commission.

ACTC Project Manager Neil Peacock said the work would be done by Caltrans, and the commission only makes the recommendations. He explained the process by which the preferred projects were evaluated, with input from a “stakeholder working group,” which held 8 meetings to discuss needs and wants for Pine Grove.

About 40 people attended the meeting Wednesday, including many of the stakeholder group members, who spoke in praise of Peacock’s handling of the process. One, Rebecca Brown, admired the “context sensitive solution process” being used by ACTC and Caltrans.

Commissioner, Supervisor John Plasse asked about Peacock’s projects recommended for study, a North Bypass, a Southern Bypass, and a “Through Town” project, and why they did not have “built-in fatal errors.”

Peacock said “we will have them shortly, when you give us the go-ahead.” He said the study would get the finer detail of the project, and closer looks at impacts.

John Gedney, rural planning administrator for Caltrans District 10, said stakeholder group information was given to the Caltrans Project Development Team, which has been working on the project. Gedney said he “would be very surprised if there was a fatal flaw at this point.” ACTC Executive Director Charles Field said the stakeholder group included knowledgeable people, including Dokken Engineering members, so they were “not out in left field.”

The commission also voted to have staff further evaluate another alternative proposed by the Pine Grove Council, Alternative Number 14. Andy Byrne of the Pine Grove Council said the “Alternative 14 was not a last-minute addition,” but was made up by stakeholders working group members from details they gathered as the group met and worked. He said Alternative 14, with north and south one-way, one-lane bypasses, was drawn with the intention of keeping Pine Grove as a “Town Center,” as it is designated in the Amador County Draft General Plan update.

The commission directed more study, and evaluation of Alternate 14, to give it the same scrutiny other Alternates received from the stakeholders. It would then be brought back with a staff recommendation for commission action.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.