CityofGoletaBy the City of Goleta
The City of Goleta is pleased to report that newly awarded Measure A Funding will be used for construction projects aimed at improving bicycle and pedestrian access and safety. The Santa Barbara County Association of Governments (SBCAG) awarded the City of Goleta two important Capital Improvement Program projects through Cycle 5 of the Measure A South Coast Regional Bicycle and Pedestrian competitive grant program. The grant program will contribute funding to the construction phase for a portion of the San Jose Creek Bike Path Northern and Southern Segments project as well as funding for the construction phase of the Hollister Old Town Interim Striping Project.
The Measure A grant funds would contribute to the construction of a portion of the Northern Segment of the overall San Jose Creek Multipurpose Path Project. This portion of the project consists of the extents of the bike path which falls within the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) right of way at the US 101 bridge crossing. Caltrans will begin the construction for the replacement of the US 101 Bridge over San Jose Creek early next year. Public Works staff worked closely with Caltrans to include the design of the bike path components into the Caltrans bridge replacement project bid documents. Caltrans will be the lead agency for the overall project construction including the construction of the portion of the bike path which falls within the limits of the bridge replacement project. This strategy produces many benefits to both projects (bridge and bike path) including reduction of impacts to the creek and surrounding environment and reduction in project cost. The City will reimburse Caltrans for the construction cost of the bike path specific components through the execution of a cooperative agreement with Caltrans. The Measure A grant funds will contribute approximately 50% of the construction costs up to a maximum of $438,000.
The Measure A grant funding will also be applied to the construction of the portions of work which will benefit bicycle and pedestrian safety as part of the Hollister Avenue Old Town Interim Striping Project. The Hollister Interim Striping Project consists of restriping Hollister Avenue between Fairview Avenue and Kinman Avenue, reducing travel lanes from two lanes to one lane in each direction. The project will provide additional space to install Class II bike lanes through the Old Town Hollister Ave corridor where none currently exist. The work covered by the grant funds will include restriping, new pavement markings, new signage, and signal interconnect system. The Measure A grant will contribute $375,000 to overall construction costs for the project.
The Measure A South Coast Regional Bicycle and Pedestrian program and Safe Routes to School Program are awarded based on a competitive grant process. The purpose of the program is to fund projects that would expand and improve the South Coast’s regional bicycle and pedestrian facilities network.
For more information on Measure A, go to http://www.measurea.net/.
Measure A was not to “fund projects that would expand and improve the South Coast’s regional bicycle and pedestrian facilities network” as this press release glibly claims. The public recruitment promise for Measure A (relative to bicycles) was that it would be used for “[b]uilding safer walking and bike routes to schools.” This project is pretty clearly unrelated to that except to the extent that schools may be accessible from these paths (though that is true for any bicycle project at all).