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JPA recommends phased Reach 2 work; estimates $120–$170 million for channel widening, walls and bridge work
Summary
Margaret Bruce told the East Palo Alto City Council the San Francisco Creek JPA recommends a phased Reach 2 plan — channel widening first, then flood walls, then bridge replacement — with feasibility costs estimated between $120 million and $170 million and open questions about Menlo Park's refusal to consider flood walls.
Margaret Bruce, presenting for the San Francisco Creek Joint Powers Authority, told the council the JPA re-evaluated Reach 2 project designs after the 2022 New Year’s Eve storms and found the creek’s modeled capacity was smaller than previously thought, requiring a new phased strategy. She said the JPA’s near-term work would prioritize channel widening and bank stabilization, with flood walls and bridge replacement following in sequence.
Bruce summarized the engineering goal as “meeting the project goal of 7,200 cubic feet per second,” the approximate flow for the flood of record, and said that channel widening alone would add capacity but would not reach that target where the Pope Chaucer bridge acts as a choke point. “Flood walls or a similar intervention gets us the next 1,200 CFS,” she said, calling for careful sequencing so that widening comes first, then flood walls, and then bridge replacement. She told the council the feasibility-level cost estimate “for all of that in phased actions is between 120 and $170,000,000 in total.”
Council members asked about funding and timing: Bruce said Army Corps participation might cover portions of widening for sites 1 and 2 but that federal funding looked uncertain; she cited an existing state grant of about $9 million and said additional state grant opportunities from recently approved climate bond programs are a possible source. On schedule, Bruce estimated roughly 18 months to reach a 30% design and permitting milestone for channel widening and said construction could follow in two construction seasons.
Bruce also warned of political and technical constraints. She said Menlo Park’s board has objected to flood walls, creating uncertainty about where walls could be placed and how to reach the 7,200‑cfs target without them. She raised sedimentation uncertainties tied to upstream projects such as Searsville and suggested more study of detention and diversion alternatives as contingencies.
What’s next: the JPA is finalizing alternatives, continuing community engagement, and expected to present a final project recommendation to its board in the summer; East Palo Alto council members were urged to consider member contributions and local impacts as the design and permitting work advances.
