Agenda, special meeting — San Bruno City Council, January 28, 2025

"The City With a Heart"
Rico E. Medina, Mayor
Marty Medina, Vice Mayor
Sandy Alvarez, Councilmember, District 1
Tom Hamilton, Councilmember, District 2
Michael Salazar, Councilmember, District 3
AGENDA
SAN BRUNO CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING
January 28, 2025
5:30 PM
IN PERSON* MEETING LOCATION
San Bruno Recreation & Aquatic Center, Community Room
251 City Park Way
San Bruno, CA 94066
*Please turn off all electronic devices before the start of the meeting to prevent disruptions*
**Zoom Link
https://sanbrunocagov.zoom.us/j/89395938205?
pwd=DSEkmejaeUHbWjtqLmhNDs7seQtZfR.1
Phone Line: 16465588656
Webinar ID: 893 9593 8205
Webinar Password: 791505
*Broadcast of the meeting is offered via Zoom as a
courtesy to the public.
**No public comment accepted via Zoom.

PUBLIC COMMENT: In person attendees who want to provide public comment, will be asked to fill out a speaker card and turn it into the City Clerk. Public comment may also be emailed to [email protected] . Comments received via email will not be read aloud during the meeting.

ACCESSIBILITY: In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, individuals requiring special accommodations or modifications to participate in this meeting should contact the City Clerk’s Office 48 hours prior to the meeting at (650) 6167061 or [email protected] .
*Any disclosable public writings related to an open session item on a regular meeting agenda and distributed by the City to at least a majority of the City Council less than 72 hours prior to that meeting are available for public inspection at the City Clerk's Office at City Hall located at 567 El Camino Real, San Bruno, California during normal business hours. In addition, the City may also post such documents on the City’s Website at sanbruno.ca.gov/AgendaCenter .

1. CALL TO ORDER

2. ROLL CALL

3. CLOSED SESSION
a. CONFERENCE WITH LABOR NEGOTIATORS
Agency designated representatives: City Manager
Employee organizations: Teamsters Local 856, IBT Miscellaneous, Fire, Police and Public Safety MidManagement; Teamsters Local 350, IBT MidManagement; San Bruno Management Employees Association; and, Unrepresented Employees

4. STUDY SESSION
Public comment will be requested after each topic in this section a. Receive Update on the South Linden Avenue and Scott Street Grade Separation Project and Provide Direction on the Optimized Alternative

5. ADJOURNMENT – The next Regular City Council Meeting will be held on January 28, 2025 at 7:00 pm.

POSTING: I declare a copy of this agenda was posted at City Hall, 567 El Camino Real, San Bruno, among other locations in the city limits of San Bruno, on January 23, 2025, by 6:00 pm.

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1. CALL TO ORDER

2. ROLL CALL

5. ADJOURNMENT – The next Regular City Council Meeting will be held on January 28, 2025 at 7:00 pm.

POSTING: I declare a copy of this agenda was posted at City Hall, 567 El Camino Real, San Bruno, among other locations in the city limits of San Bruno, on January 23, 2025, by 6:00 pm. 2 of 8

City Council Agenda Item
Staff Report

CITY OF SAN BRUNO
DATE: January 28, 2025
TO: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
FROM: Alex D. McIntyre, City Manager
PREPARED BY: Hae Won Ritchie, P.E., Deputy Public Works Director / City Engineer SUBJECT: Receive Update on the South Linden Avenue and Scott Street Grade Separation Project and Provide Direction on the Optimized Alternative BACKGROUND:

The City of San Bruno has been considering a grade separation at the Scott Street Caltrain crossing since 2005 as part of the San Bruno Avenue grade separation project. The Scott Street grade separation was removed from the San Bruno Avenue project but in 2013 the City of San Bruno partnered with the City of South San Francisco and applied for funding from the San Mateo County Transportation Authority (TA) for a Planning Study for a joint project to separate the grades of Scott Street in San Bruno and South Linden Avenue in South San Francisco. Currently, both South Linden Avenue and Scott Street are the only remaining at- grade crossings in their respective cities and represent an important opportunity to increase safety, spur redevelopment and accommodate economic opportunity in the area.

The railroad crossings at South Linden Avenue and Scott Street are a relatively short distance from each other, approximately 1,850 feet apart. Due to their proximity, the grade separations at South Linden and Scott Street must be evaluated together because the design of one grade separation will impact the other.

A grade separation at Scott Street is essential to improving safety and decreasing expected future traffic delays due to the expected growth in vehicle traffic, greater frequency of Caltrain service, and the eventual addition of the high-speed rail service. In addition, the project will aid in the success of the transit-oriented development and related improvements within the transit corridors area, as identified in the San Bruno Transit Corridors Plan.

The funding for the project Planning Study phase was approved in 2016; and a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the two cities, the TA, and the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board (JPB). The Project Development Team (PDT) was formed in 2018; and the Project Study Report was completed in 2021. The Project Study Report consisted of technical evaluations and extensive community engagement for the various options for grade separating Scott Street. The preferred alternative selected by both agencies was Alternative 1, which was the hybrid solution where the railroad tracks would be partially raised, and any vehicular crossings lowered. For the City of San Bruno, Alternative 1 consisted of raising the railroad tracks by approximately

2.5 feet, closing Scott Street to vehicular traffic, and constructing a pedestrian and bicycle undercrossing (tunnel) with the floor elevation of the undercrossing approximately 15 feet below ground. The guiding principles for this alternative were (1) increase safety by eliminating at- grade crossings, which would also alleviate future traffic congestion caused by increased gate 3 of 8
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1 down-times, (2) reduce property impacts by not having the preferred alternative result in residential, private property acquisitions, and (3) reduce the visual and privacy impacts and travel distance of the pedestrian and bicycle crossing. The City of South San Francisco selected to provide for a fully grade separated vehicular and pedestrian/bicycle crossing at South Linden Avenue, with the railroad tracks being raised approximately 15.5 feet and South Linden Avenue being lowered approximately 7 feet.

With the conclusion of the Planning Study phase and the completion of the Project Study Report, the project was prepared to enter the Preliminary Engineering/Environmental phase.

DISCUSSION:

The funding for the Preliminary Engineering/Environmental phase was approved in 2022. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the Cities of San Bruno and South San Francisco, the TA, and JPB. The lead implementing agency for the project, JPB Caltrain, retained the designer, RSE, in 2023 to perform the preliminary engineering design. The product of the preliminary engineering will inform the environmental review. Caltrain and the designer commenced the Preliminary Engineering/Environmental phase by performing value engineering on the selected preferred Alternative 1.

The goal of value engineering is to analyze and attempt to eliminate without impairing the essential functions or characteristics of a project, aspects that increase construction, acquisition, and operations costs. The key potential risks that were identified from the value engineering were the costs of acquiring construction and permanent easements and rights- of-way, the complexity and costs of the construction associated with the electrified rail, the impact of maintaining rail operations during the construction phase on the project schedule, and the rising costs of labor and material.

The preferred Alternative 1 requires that a shoofly track (detour track) be constructed parallel to the existing railroad tracks to allow for train travel to remain operational during the construction phase. While trains utilize the shoofly, the permanent raised railroad tracks could be constructed.

The shoofly in the City of San Bruno would be adjacent to or within Herman Avenue, resulting in the removal of parking and reduced vehicular travel to one lane during the construction phase. The impacts in the City of South San Francisco are more extensive.

The construction easements in South San Francisco are predicted to require the acquisition of private property rights, including areas that are potentially occupied by operational commercial structures.

Due to the trains being electrified, this would also entail electrifying the shoofly and reconstructing the electrified tracks in the permanent configuration. Caltrain additionally identified that construction hours with a shoofly would be restricted due to safety requirements. The impacts of constructing near an electrified railroad significantly reduce the construction work windows due to safety clearances from live wires – thus extending the construction duration by several years and adding in escalation and delay costs to Alternative 1.
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1 A method of grade separation construction that could help mitigate the schedule, rights-of- way and cost considerations that has not been used in the San Francisco Bay Area, but has been used in Europe and recently in New York State, is box jacking. Box jacking involves the advancement of a site-cast rectangular box or other shaped section using high-capacity hydraulic jacks. The structure to be installed is constructed, normally in reinforced concrete, on a launch pad at the site adjacent to where it is to be installed. It is then thrust forward horizontally with jacking technology. This is used where an existing road or rail track is on an embankment and space exists for the structure to be cast at the side. The main benefit of this method of construction is that the surface improvements can be preserved, meaning the electrified railroad tracks could remain and eliminate the need for a shoofly. Open cut construction may still be required in limited locations. Box jacking had not been considered during the Planning Study phase because shooflies have been the standard for most US rail operators for over a century. Caltrain has recently determined that box jacking is a viable alternative to shooflies and has begun implementing this philosophy. Box jacking also has minimal impacts to electrified railroads.

Compared to Alternative 1, the Optimized Alternative has the benefits of 1) significantly less right-of-way impacts along the alignment due to the lack of a shoofly track, 2) requires significantly less construction night work in San Bruno that is close to existing residences, 3) significantly less traffic impacts, 4) significantly less environmental impacts (less noise and vibration, no Colma Creek impacts, less pollution), 5) 50% less construction duration, and 6) is significantly lower in cost and more fundable. A preliminary funding plan is provided as Attachment 2.

Box jacking is being recommended as part of the value engineering analysis because it would help to mitigate the key potential cost and schedule risks and potential environmental impacts identified above. In San Bruno, proceeding with the value engineered, optimization effort modifications (Optimized Alternative) would result in the railroad tracks remaining at- grade and the undercrossing adjusting lower to accommodate the tracks no longer being raised. Further refinement of the designs during Preliminary Engineering is indicating that the floor of the pedestrian and bicycle undercrossing will need to be lowered by an additional approximately 4-feet; however, with a potential design waiver, that distance could be reduced to approximately 2.5-feet. With Alternative 1, the floor elevation of the pedestrian bicycle undercrossing was 15 feet below ground surface. The new floor elevation for the Optimized Alternative would be 17.5 to 19 feet below ground.

In San Bruno, the Optimized Alternative is similar to another alternative (Alternative 3) that was studied and not preferred because the cost was comparatively higher due to the undercrossings, specifically South Linden Avenue in South San Francisco being much lower. However, the difference between the previous Alternative 3 and the Optimized Alternative is the box jacking method has allowed the alternative where the railroad tracks remain at the same elevation to become more cost effective due to the elimination of the shoofly.

Caltrain endorses the Optimized Alternative because it is the more effective and realistic to advance forward with design. This is because the Optimized Alternative limits the construction duration of the project, offers reduced impacts to the right-of-way, the 5 of 8
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1 environment, and the footprint of the concept, among other factors.

Staff’s recommendation is to proceed with the Optimized Alternative. The differences between the previously selected Alternative 1 and the Optimized Alternative for Scott Street are relatively minor with substantially less cost and schedule risk associated with acquiring right-of-way, constructing electrified shooflies, and reconstructing the electrified rail.

Lastly, with this Optimized Alternative, it may be possible to keep the at-grade crossing open during portions of construction. However, in the permanent configuration of Scott Street, the vehicular crossing will be closed.

FISCAL IMPACT:

There is no fiscal impact associated with receiving this update.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT:

There is no environmental impact in receiving this update. The project is subject to environmental review, which will be conducted as part of the current Preliminary Engineering/Environmental review phase.

RECOMMENDATION:

Receive Update on the South Linden Avenue and Scott Street Grade Separation Project and Provide Direction on the Optimized Alternative
ALTERNATIVES:

1. Direct Project Development Team to proceed with the previously selected Alternative 1.

This will be contrary to Caltrain’s endorsement of the Optimized Alternative.

ATTACHMENTS:

1. Renderings of Project Study Report Alternative 1 and Optimized Alternative

2. Preliminary Funding Plan
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ATTACHMENT 1
Preliminary Funding Plan
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ATTACHMENT 2

San Bruno City CouncilJanuary 28, 2025

San Bruno City Council
January 28, 2025