Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Transportation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
SamTrans presents Grand Boulevard action plan to San Carlos council, estimates corridor cost at about $750 million
Summary
SamTrans senior planner Nicholas G. told San Carlos council the Grand Boulevard Initiative vision for El Camino Real centers on safety, multimodal mobility and placemaking; the countywide effort involves multiple agencies and may take years to build, with an estimated corridor cost in the hundreds of millions.
SamTrans and regional partners outlined a long‑range vision to remake El Camino Real when a SamTrans senior planner briefed the San Carlos City Council on Oct. 27.
"GBI is a partnership between SamTrans and partner jurisdictions along El Camino Real," Nicholas G., the project deputy manager, said. He described the Grand Boulevard Initiative (GBI) action plan as a coordinated, multi‑agency effort to advance streetscape improvements, station and transit upgrades, and safety treatments along the corridor.
The presentation emphasized three priorities: safety (reduce fatal and serious injury crashes, particularly for pedestrians and cyclists), improved mobility for transit users and nonmotorized travelers, and a new aligned process for design and funding to make corridor projects competitive for regional and state grants. SamTrans officials warned the corridor work will be phased and may take many years to implement: small, spot improvements could appear in the near term, but systemwide changes will require Caltrans project initiation and major funding. The presentation gave a rough scale of cost: "In the ballpark of $750 million plus" for the entire 25‑mile corridor, a SamTrans slide said.
County funding partners including the Sanonteo County Transportation Authority (TA) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission are participating, SamTrans officials said, and funding will likely be a mix of local sales‑tax dollars, competitive regional grants and state or federal sources.
Why it matters: The El Camino corridor is both a regional connector and the main street for many cities. Any corridor design changes involve tradeoffs among automobile capacity, transit performance, bicycle infrastructure, tree canopy and local business access. Council members welcomed the coordinated, corridor‑level effort but asked about local impacts, timing and how the plan interacts with housing law changes that may alter land use around transit.
Direct quote: "El Camino Real was designed as a highway to move cars and people, and vestiges of autocentric planning have prevented it from reaching its full potential," Nicholas G. said while outlining the project's goals.
What’s next: SamTrans and partner agencies will be presenting the GBI action plan to city councils along the corridor and expect to seek formal adoption at SamTrans and TA boards later in the calendar year. Local councils will continue to provide site‑specific feedback as the action plan advances to project‑initiation steps required by Caltrans.
