State bullet-train officials received a cold welcome from a
packed house of South County residents who attended a status update
of the project that will roar or whisper (depending on whose
analysis is used) through the community starting in 2020.
State bullet-train officials received a cold welcome from a packed house of South County residents who attended a status update of the project that will roar or whisper (depending on whose analysis is used) through the community starting in 2020.
California High-Speed Rail spokesmen addressed the city council at the local body’s request Wednesday. Following a presentation that included newly-released data on the 220-mph statewide bullet train’s possible noise impact, residents harshly criticized the authority’s communications with the public, predicted the train would fail financially and complained about the obstructing presence the elevated tracks would impose on local property.
One South County resident even offered a video presentation demonstrating the high-pitched noise that a bullet train might make as it passes through Morgan Hill.
However, consultants for the state agency reported an analysis of the train’s noise impact as it passes through town at 180 mph – the maximum projected speed for trains on the local segment of tracks – indicating it would not be much louder than U.S. 101 at rush hour.
The analysis showed that the train’s maximum volume at top speed, and at 100 feet from the tracks would be about 80 decibels, according to consultant Gary Kennerley. Eight-five decibels is “at the threshold” of what federal regulators think is a “severe impact.”
However, that analysis is based on 10-year-old technology, and rail officials think that with modern sound-mitigating technology such as sound walls they can bring the sound down to 65 decibels at the same distance from the tracks, which HSRA board member Rod Diridon said is “conversational noise.”
Plus, the spokesmen noted that most residents and properties along the route are further than 100 feet from the tracks, and the sound dampens at further distances.
Expected to begin full operation in 2020, the $45-billion, 800-mile system will have routes from Sacramento to San Diego with connections to the Bay Area and a major stop and possibly a station in Gilroy. The federal government so far has awarded the project $4.3 billion in funding, including $715 million announced earlier this week. Those funds have been allocated to sections of the train that go through the Central Valley, which are likely to be constructed before the local section is built.
“If it’s operationally effective, and something we can do, we’ll do it,” Diridon said to the council Wednesday, noting to what extent the body’s input will be considered in the project’s design and alignment. “We have to figure out, with you, the way to do it properly.”
Most of the information presented at Wednesday’s meeting was a repeat of data offered by the HSRA at numerous public meetings throughout South County since January.
The consultants Wednesday presented simulations and other visual depictions of what a 35-foot-high track, supported by columns every 120 feet and electric wires and support poles atop the tracks might look like.
The train’s route through Morgan Hill and Gilroy will either align with the current Union Pacific tracks and run through downtown or cut through the rural area east of U.S. 101. A combination of the two routes is also possible.
However the city council Wednesday asked the authority to consider two more options – one that’s new and one that the HSRA has already studied. A new route offered by the council would be an at-grade alignment parallel to the Union Pacific tracks, with grade separations at major streets such as East Dunne and Tennant avenues to allow motor vehicles to pass under or over the passenger train.
Such an alignment might be preferable to an elevated track on the same route, as it could lower the construction costs, Diridon noted.
The council also asked the authority to again consider an alignment that exactly follows U.S. 101 through Morgan Hill. A similar route was considered by HSRA officials earlier this year, at the request of the council, but was rejected because it was too curvy and would move trains too slowly to meet the state-mandated travel time requirements for the project, HSRA officials said Wednesday.
One of the two alignments currently on the table follows U.S. 101 to north Morgan Hill, but then veers off the freeway to the east in order to follow a straighter line to a proposed station in Gilroy.
A Gilroy-area resident suggested the council has failed to stay informed on the progress of the train system’s alignment analyses since it signed a joint resolution with Gilroy in December, voicing support for bullet-train alignment along U.S. 101. That joint resolution rejected the initially-proposed route along the Union Pacific tracks through downtown before its environmental impact had been studied, noted the resident, Yvonne Sheets-Saucedo.
Last month, the Gilroy council approved a “no confidence” resolution against the HSRA due its perceived mismanagement of the project and failure to adequately communicate with the public.
At Wednesday’s meeting, some council members verbally indicated a renewed interest in a route through downtown Morgan Hill, even though they feared last year that such a structure would divide the community.
“You’ve allowed yourselves to be outside this process a long time,” Sheets-Saucedo told the council. “You have a joint resolution with a city that now has passed a no-confidence resolution. You need to do some housekeeping,” and “rescind” the joint resolution, she added.
“Just because we don’t have public meetings all the time doesn’t mean we aren’t involved,” replied Councilman Greg Sellers later in the meeting. “I’ve gone back and forth on alignments, and it’s a critical point the community needs to weigh in on.” He added that as of Wednesday he is “leaning toward” an alignment through downtown if the noise, visual and property impacts can be mitigated.
Council members were also upset that the HSRA plans to close residential streets north and south of town where the train makes transitions from grade-level onto 35-foot-high viaducts. Wednesday was the first time the council had heard that the proposed alignment on the east side of U.S. 101 would require the closure of Tilton Avenue at Monterey Road north of town, and Fisher and Maple avenues south of town.
“I do not like the idea of going through these rural residential areas (on the east side of U.S. 101) and blocking these streets,” said Councilwoman Marilyn Librers, to applause from the standing-room-only audience.
Councilwoman Marby Lee, who will leave the council at the end of this month following her failed bid for the mayor’s seat, said she voted against the 2008 $9-billion bond measure, but “the devil is in the details.”
“We’re not getting a whole lot of answers about it,” Lee said.
The HSRA is currently in the process of producing an environmental study of the train’s possible route from San Jose to Merced, including the train’s crossing over Pacheco Pass from Gilroy to the Central Valley. Construction on Central Valley subsections of the train could begin as soon as late 2012, according to HSRA officials.
