Soil contamination could add another hurdle for MST’s SURF! busway project.

On March 21, when the California Transportation Commission approved allocating $25 million to Monterey-Salinas Transit to build the SURF! busway – an off-highway, bus-only road over the existing Monterey Branch Line from Sand City to Marina – MST celebrated it as a victory. But really, it was formality – the state had long promised MST the money, and the agency had no doubt it would receive it.

But Michael Salerno, a Marina resident who’s long been a vocal opponent of the SURF! project, raised the issue of potential toxic contamination in the rail line’s ballast, a concern that could impact the project’s viability. MST General Manager Carl Sedoryk, who traveled to Sacramento for the meeting, assured commissioners that Salerno’s concerns were unfounded, and they took him at his word.

The reality is more complicated. Last May, MST’s contractor for the project, Graniterock-Myers, submitted to MST a soil and ballast report on the Monterey Branch Line that showed potentially problematic levels of various heavy metals along the line, well exceeding the state’s threshold for hazardous waste allowed at ReGen Monterey’s landfill northeast of Marina.

MST isn’t planning to dispose of the ballast at a landfill; its plan is to crush it to be reused as a foundation for the busway.

“This thing is going to haunt the community for years.”

But that requires sign-off from the California Coastal Commission, which approved the SURF! project last September and later received the soil and ballast report from MST in February 2025. Coastal Commission planner Breylen Ammen says before signing off on that plan, the agency is awaiting an updated report from MST with new testing “to help us determine the appropriate path forward in terms of coastal resource protection,” and adds, “MST is taking the contamination allegations seriously.” Ammen expects those results in the coming days.

Regardless, Salerno remains concerned the project’s costs are going to continue rising above the current estimated price tag of $100 million.

“This thing is going to haunt the community for years,” he says. “It’s going to be a mess.”

Already, one of the project’s conditions of approval – matching the color of the asphalt to the surrounding dunescape – has been deemed infeasible by the Coastal Commission due to its added cost of over $14 million, though Sedoryk says MST is exploring options to “seal” the road with a material that strives to match the color.

As for whether SURF! can be completed at its current price tag, Sedoryk says, “We’ve accounted for all reasonable risks, and we have a budget for that. Frankly, this isn’t a difficult project.”