I am sending this announcement to the Menlo Park City Council because I believe the information discussed at this meeting tomorrow
night, !2/17/18, will be useful to Menlo Park's decision matrix about the railroad crossings in our city.
Subject: Re: Palo Alto City Council votes on Monday evening on which grade separation alternatives for Caltrain will be further
studied for the Charleston and West Meadow grade crossings. It is THE ONE MEETING for all parties interested in the future of the
peninsula and Caltrain's impact in this area. This email comes from the CMA neighborhood group of South Palo Alto. Both the East
Meadow and Charleston crossings impact the neighborhood, much the way Encinal, Oak Grove, and Ravenswood impact Menlo Park.
"Hello All,If there was one meeting you had to come to this year to make your opinion have the most impact, the City Council
meeting at 8:15 PM on Monday (December 17th) is that meeting.
Charleston and Meadow intersections are on the agenda in a big way. City Council WILL VOTE TO ELIMINATE SOME CONSTRUCTION OPTIONS
AND MOVE FORWARD WITH OTHERS for these two intersections.
According to AECOM consultants, the cost of the "Train on Wall" (City calls this Hybrid) is around $250M, "Train on an even higher
structure" (viaduct) is at $450M, Below ground trench at $800M.
Separate from the official estimates above, Nadia Naik has researched and put forward another option for the Council to study,
which is a tunnel only for Charleston and Meadow with Caltrain in the tunnel and freight on top ("freightless tunnel"), and she
estimates the cost at $550M (her comparables from downtown SF tunnel).
So we need to go to this Council Meeting and
a. Request City Council to study Nadia's proposal for freightless tunnel for S PA. If we can pull it off, this looks like the best
option.
b. Have City Council vote to eliminate both the Hybrid and Viaduct options.
c. Continue studying the below ground trench option despite the AECOM cost estimate ($800M). BTW the prior consultant (Hatch Mott
MacDonald) estimated trench at $480M.
Full staff report here (https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?t=65405.48&BlobID=68176
[https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?t=65405.48&BlobID=68176] )
- Animation for the 3 options on pg 28
At 8:15PM at Palo Alto City Hall on Monday (12/17). Tomorrow. I believe this is the last time the tunnel and trench options will
be brought up for consideration. What a difference it would make to your neighborhoods.
Thank you for considering all options for Menlo Park.
Hinda Sack,Menlo Oaks.
