BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 157|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 157
Author: Levine (D)
Amended: 6/25/15 in Senate
Vote: 27 - Urgency
SENATE TRANS. & HOUSING COMMITTEE: 11-0, 7/7/15
AYES: Beall, Cannella, Allen, Bates, Gaines, Galgiani, Leyva,
McGuire, Mendoza, Roth, Wieckowski
SENATE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE: 6-0, 7/15/15
AYES: Gaines, Bates, Hill, Jackson, Leno, Pavley
NO VOTE RECORDED: Wieckowski
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 75-0, 3/26/15 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Richmond-San Rafael Bridge
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill allows an environmental review to be
completed concurrently with the design work for a project
opening the third lane in each direction on the Richmond-San
Rafael Bridge.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Creates the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) as
the transportation planning, coordinating, and financing
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agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.
2)Creates the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) to administer the
base $1 auto toll for the San Francisco Bay Area's seven
state-owned toll bridges. BATA operates under the same board
that governs MTC; however, they are separate entities. In
2005, BATA's responsibilities were expanded to include
administration of all toll revenues and joint oversight of the
toll bridge construction program along with the California
Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and the California
Transportation Commission.
3)Requires state and local agencies, pursuant to the California
Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), to identify significant
environmental impacts of discretionary projects and to avoid
or mitigate those impacts, if feasible. Lead agencies are
required to prepare a negative declaration, mitigated negative
declaration, or environmental impact report (EIR) for the
project.
This bill authorizes MTC and Caltrans to complete the design
work at the same time as the environmental review for a project
opening the third lane on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge to
automobile traffic on the eastbound level and to bicycle traffic
on the westbound level.
Background
When the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge originally opened in 1956,
it served traffic in six 12-foot-wide lanes - three lanes in
both the eastbound and westbound directions. In 1977, a
then-underutilized third lane was closed to allow for a pipeline
to transport water from the East Bay to Marin County. In 1978,
the pipeline was removed and the third lane was restriped as an
emergency shoulder. In 1989, following the Loma Prieta
earthquake and the closure of the San Francisco Bay Bridge, the
third lane on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge was opened in both
directions for one month to help ease traffic flow across the
bay.
CEQA challenges. Environmental studies and design work for
projects are typically separated, but they needn't be. Lead
agencies can choose to "design-at-risk," meaning that design
work precedes environmental clearance, to shorten completion
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time of projects. This strategy is not unheard of; however, it
can open the door to legal challenges under CEQA because it may
appear that the EIR is biased and tailored to fit a
pre-determined outcome, namely a finished design.
The circumstances surrounding the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge
project are different, as the newly proposed third traffic lane
has been open to vehicles in the past, so a design can be based
off this proven, previously functioning model.
Necessity of the bill. In February, the BATA Oversight
Committee approved a contract for the completion of final plans
for the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge project. These plans are to
occur concurrently with the effort to obtain project approval
and the environmental review activities. This recent action
shaves time off the project, which calls into question the
necessity of this bill and how it will actually help in
achieving the author's stated intent. However, supporters
believe that this bill will help the project to be further
expedited.
Comments
Purpose. According to the author, this bill is necessary to
reduce the amount of time to completion for the Richmond-San
Rafael Bridge project and therefore significantly reduce
commuter congestion.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:NoLocal: No
SUPPORT: (Verified8/19/15)
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Bay Area Council
Bay Area Toll Authority
City of San Rafael
Marin County Board of Supervisors
Marin County Council of Mayors and Councilmembers
North Bay Leadership Council
State Building and Construction Trades Council of California
Transportation Authority of Marin
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United Contractors
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/19/15)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 75-0, 3/26/15
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang,
Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle,
Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Beth Gaines, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo
Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove,
Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Kim,
Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mayes,
McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte,
O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Perea, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas,
Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond,
Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Frazier, Gallagher, Jones-Sawyer, Mathis,
Rendon
Prepared by:Christine Hochmuth / T. & H. / (916) 651-4121
8/19/15 20:23:17
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