The far-east edge cities of the Bay Area were literally ground zero for the real estate bubble. But despite the real estate collapse and high gas prices, the zombie highway projects keep right on going:
State Route 239 is a legislatively approved but unconstructed route in the state highway system. The highway is to connect Brentwood to Tracy. The study area envisions a new roadway in the area currently covered by the Bryon Highway/J4.
SR 239 has moved from the concept phase to the early planning phase. The County has collected Federal earmarks totaling $14 million to study and construct the new highway. Even with reduced constriction cost $14 million will probably pay for the planning, environmental studies and possibly some initial right of way purchases. Additional funding sources will be needed for the actual construction.
Contra Costa County has selected a consultant team headed by Parsons Transportation Group to perform the technical work, economic analysis, public outreach, project delivery and consensus-building for the SR 239 Project, The work is expected to take approximately two years and will involve the City of Brentwood, City of Tracy, San Joaquin County, Contra Costa County, San Joaquin Council of Governments, Mountain House Community Services District, Alameda County, Caltrans, and the Contra Costa Transportation Authority.
In case you haven’t heard of the “planned” community of Mountain House, the New York Times had a feature on that development. It is basically a ghost town, with the highest percentage of underwater mortgages in the country. Here we are in the midst of major economic downturn, and Contra Costa County is going off and planning a giant new north-south freeway to feed unsustainable developments like Mountain House.
What is really infuriating is the way this project has flown under the radar. There is no mention (that I can locate) in the MTC’s Federally mandated 2035 Plan. This is not uncommon for the MTC. Their lack of transparency has led to numerous lawsuits and Civil Rights complaints filed with the Feds.
[...] transportation, despite the hazy arguments offered by the Reason Foundation on the subject. And Systemic Failure remarks the tendency for “zombie highway” projects — those planned long before [...]
A project that has been on the books since the early 1980′s is hardly a stealth project. It is in Contra Costa County’s plans as well as San Joaquin county’s plans. The MTC probably didn’t mention it because it’s such a small project. Honestly all they’re likely to do is to limit the number of driveways on the Byron Highway and adding some passing lanes. Nobody wants to build a freeway there. Read the report they did in 1985. Nothing has changed since then except traffic is a bit worse, but nothing near what would justify a freeway.
The more likely candidate for a freeway is CA4, which is still planned for upgrades in San Joaquin County’s plans but has been deleted from Contra Costa’s plans. The other road to watch if you’re really paranoid about stealth freeways is Vasco Road. Once the SR4 Byapss extension is complete it is the next logical one to widen and it was already upgraded to something very freeway like with the addition of the median barrier and climbing lanes as part of the stimulus.
The only other big projects out that way are the widening of CA-12 to a mostly 4 lane (2 per direction) expressway and the construction of a new Rio Vista bridge.
Here is more detail:
http://www.ccta.net/assets/documents/Available~Publications/Strategic~Plans~and~Amendments/Final%202011%20Measure%20C%20Strategic%20Plan.pdf
http://www.ccta.net/assets/documents/PC/010412~PC~Agenda/04%20Brdltr%20SR%20239.pdf
Essentially SR 239 is being studied now because Congress allocated $14m to study and widen the road in 2005 and someone has finally gotten around to it.