There aren’t many hurdles left to clear for Monterey-Salinas Transit’s SURF! project, which is planned to be a rapid transit busway between Marina and Sand City, and would have its own, separated roadway to the west of Highway 1 between the two cities.
In theory, the project seeks to reduce traffic during commute times. Once built, how many people will actually ride on it? That’s unknown, but the idea, MST General Manager Carl Sedoryk says, is akin to the famous Field of Dreams line, “If you build it, they will come.”
The project is fully funded – it’s budgeted at around $78 million, with $6 million set aside as a contingency for potential cost overruns.
The last pre-construction hurdles that remain are to get coastal development permits from the cities of Marina and Sand City, as well as the California Coastal Commission. Both cities have approved local coastal plans, which allow them to grant the permits without the matter coming before the statewide commission. However in this case, a 2.5-mile stretch along the highway is outside of both cities’ LCP jurisdictions.
On Dec. 5, Sedoryk came to Sand City’s City Council meeting to apprise them of MST’s recent work in general, but the conversation quickly shifted to how the SURF! project would impact Sand City. One of the project’s two endpoints is on Playa Avenue, just west of its intersection with California Avenue between two high-traffic shopping centers in the small city.
Vibeke Norgaard, Sand City’s manager, had already been in communication with MST regarding traffic impacts of the project on that intersection and wanted to see more data, and expressed a desire for there to possibly be a roundabout at the intersection.
So MST’s traffic consultant on the project, Frederik Venter from Kimley-Horn, ran a traffic simulation that shows the impact of a roundabout at that intersection.
In short, it shows the roundabout would increase travel times because the path going north out of the Costco parking lot – which is California Avenue – would be reduced to one lane. Instead, of the four options Venter presented to the MST board at a meeting on Monday, Dec. 11, the board – along with Norgaard – agreed the best option is three lanes, with dedicated left – and right-hand turn lanes.
Sedoryk says construction is expected to start next September and that it will take about 25 months.
(1) comment
SuRF! is a classic MST/TAMC boondoggle project. The six miles of bus-only lanes only goes from Marina to Seaside and does nothing about Blanco Rd (coming from Salinas) and nothing going further South to Monterey. We took these routes and found that MST's ridership numbers simply don't bear out. At the height of the commute, there were maybe twenty people on the 21 line. Adding more frequent busses during the height of the commute would do the same as SuRF! at a fraction of the cost.
They are going to tear up some beautiful Coastal habitat for bus lanes that hardly anyone will use .. and at the last Marina City Council meeting, even the MST representative said that the project won't likely get people out of their cars.
Then it won't reduce congestion on Hwy 1 at all!
We all know what the biggest traffic problem on the Peninsula is .. losing a lane at Fremont. Why not fix that?
The DOT's grant practices of going directly to transportation authorities lets them cook these crazy projects up in a vacuum .. and then try to ram them down the public's throat.
Thanks for your writing on the article. We plan to be vocal opponents at the Coastal Commission meeting.
Welcome to the discussion.
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