BILL ANALYSIS
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 1061
Author: Hancock (D)
Amended: 5/25/10
Vote: 21
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE : 6-2, 3/23/10
AYES: Lowenthal, DeSaulnier, Kehoe, Oropeza, Pavley,
Simitian
NOES: Huff, Ashburn
NO VOTE RECORDED: Harman
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 7-3, 5/27/10
AYES: Kehoe, Alquist, Corbett, Leno, Price, Wolk, Yee
NOES: Denham, Walters, Wyland
NO VOTE RECORDED: Cox
SUBJECT : Capital projects related to the San
Francisco-Oakland Bay
Bridge
SOURCE : East Bay Bicycle Coalition
DIGEST : This bill authorizes the Bay Area Toll Authority
to spend future revenues from bridge tolls to construct a
bicycle-pedestrian-maintenance pathway on the western
portion of the San Francisco Bay Bridge between Yerba Buena
Island and San Francisco.
ANALYSIS : The Metropolitan Transportation Commission
(MTC) is designated a multi-county regional transportation
CONTINUED
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planning agency (RTPA) under state law and a metropolitan
planning organization (MPO) under federal law. MTC is the
transportation planning, coordinating, and financing agency
for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. The counties
that comprise MTC include Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin,
Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and
Sonoma. MTC is governed by a 19-member policy board.
The Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) is an independent legal
entity governed by the board of MTC. BATA sets the tolls,
manages and invests the toll revenues from the seven
state-owned toll bridges: Antioch, Benicia-Martinez,
Carquinez, Dumbarton, Richmond-San Rafael, San
Francisco-Oakland, and San Mateo-Hayward. Among its
responsibilities, BATA funds the day-to-day operations,
maintenance, and administration of the bridges. In
addition, BATA uses toll revenues to pay debt service on
bonds issued to pay the cost of the seismic retrofit
program and the voter-approved Regional Measures (RM) 1 and
2, both long-term transportation capital improvement
programs for transportation facilities in the travel
corridors serving the bridges.
The base toll for the bridges is four dollars and is
scheduled to increase to five dollars on July 1, 2010.
This bill:
1. Authorizes expenditure of toll bridge revenues for the
construction of a combined
bicycle-pedestrian-maintenance pathway on the western
span of the SFOBB, linking Yerba Buena Island to San
Francisco, provided that the project is included in the
adopted regional transportation plan.
2. Specifies the bicycle-pedestrian-maintenance pathway may
include the capacity for maintenance vehicles if it does
not lower the bridge's height above the shipping
channel.
3. Requires, prior to approving the project and authorizing
construction that BATA make a finding that the
bicycle-pedestrian-maintenance pathway does not
fundamentally after the profile of the bridge.
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4. Prohibits the BATA from increasing tolls to fund this
project.
5. Authorizes MTC to sponsor such a project at its
discretion.
6. Requires the project sponsor seeking to construct this
project to seek funding from all other nonstate sources,
including federal matching funds, and report to BATA
concerning any funds it obtains.
Background
After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the Department of
Transportation (Caltrans) engineers, in collaboration with
university and private sector structural engineers,
determined that the eastern cantilevered span of the Bay
Bridge was unsafe and had to be replaced. The design of
the replacement span incorporates a bicycle and pedestrian
path that is adjacent to but separated from the traffic
lanes by a double barrier. The path begins near Emeryville
where it intersects and existing bike path and ends at
Yerba Buena Island. The path is not designed for use by
maintenance vehicles, as shoulders are incorporated in the
design of the new span to accommodate maintenance and
emergency vehicles. During the period when public hearings
were held on the new east span, several interest groups
argued for a continuation of the path on the west span, but
the BATA Board decided to limit the path to the east span.
Bicycle path studies . In 2001, Caltrans commissioned a
feasibility study to analyze the engineering issues
associated with constructing a bicycle and pedestrian
facility on the west span. The analysis identified two
important constraints. One constraint, imposed by the
Coast Guard, is that existing vertical clearance over the
shipping channel that the bridge crosses cannot be
decreased. This means that light weight construction
materials must be used to avoid any deflection or lowering
of the bridge. Second, because the bridge qualifies for
listing in the National Register of Historic Places, the
addition of the bike and pedestrian lane cannot change the
profile of the bridge. After considering sixteen
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alternatives, the study concluded that two light weight
options were possible. The cost estimates vary between
$168 million and $350 million.
Because it has been nearly ten years since the feasibility
study, BATA has commission the preparation of a project
study report (PSR) to develop new alternatives for
constructing a bicycle and pedestrian path on the west span
of the Bay Bridge. The PSR is the first project
development engineering step that can result in a proposed
project being included in the State Transportation
Improvement Program. The PSR is expected to be completed
next year.
Limited availability of toll revenues to fund the project .
According to BATA, toll revenues from the seven state
bridges are committed to debt service for seismic safety
bonds, the RM 1 and RM 2 bonds, and the necessary
obligations associated with bridge maintenance and
operations. The actual project amount committed to each
program category is as follows: (1) $9.435 billion for the
Toll Bridge Seismic Retrofit Program Budget, including $750
million for retrofitting the Antioch and Dumbarton bridges;
(2) $2.4 billion for the RM1 program; (3) $1.5 billion for
the RM 2 program.
Currently, the last bond maturity for BATA bonds is 2049.
However, since BATA has not completed financing for the
seismic retrofit projects or for RM2 projects, that date
will be pushed out as BATA issues more bonds. Bonds are
issued without reference to a specific program. The actual
amount to any given program category is a programming
exercise that MTC manages. The debt service-the bonds
principle and interest-can easily be twice the cost of the
funded projects.
The Dumbarton Bridge and the Antioch Bridge were added to
the seismic safety retrofit program last year AB 1175
(Torlakson), Chapter 515, Statutes of 2009.
This project could conceivably be funded if toll revenues
were to exceed forecasted amounts, federal funds are made
available for the project, local sources of funds become
available, or a combination of funds from different sources
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arise.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12
2012-13 Fund
Bridge project cost
pressures of $168,000 $518,338 to
Special*/
to construct bicycle-pedestrian-
Federal
maintenance pathway on west span of
the SFOBB
* Bay Area Toll Account (bridge toll revenues)
SUPPORT : (Verified 5/27/10)
Bay Area Bicycle Coalition (source)
Association of Bay Area Governments
Bay Area Bicycle Coalition
Bay Localize
Bay Localized
Bike for a Better City
Breathe California
California Association of Bicycling Organizations
California Bicycle Coalition
Citizens for East Shore Parks
Ecocity Builders
Friends of BRT
Friends of Bus Rapid Transit
Friends of the Earth
Marin County Bicycle Coalition
Rails-to-Trails Conservancy
Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates
San Francisco Bicycle Coalition
Sierra Club California
TransForm
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JJA:do 5/28/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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