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Traffic is always a hot-button issue in Danville, and the promise of a talk about Interstate 680 was enough to fill this month’s “Breakfast with the Mayor” meeting.
Randell Iwasaki, executive director of the Contra Costa Transportation Authority fielded questions about everything from safety on I-680 to the Caldecott Tunnel.
“Your safety is our top priority, my top priority,” Iwasaki told the group.
Several residents asked about signs on the Southbound I-680 near the Diablo Road exit indicating a lane ends, although the lane doesn’t actually end there. Iwasaki promised to look into that and get whatever changes were necessary.
He said the construction project along I-680 will take a while longer, but will include improvements, like rubberized asphalt for “whisper-quiet” driving.
“(Interstate) 680 is hopefully going to be done at the end of 2012, next year,” Iwasaki said. An auxiliary lane project could go to construction next year if funding can be found, he said, adding the CCTA is looking to the federal government for help.
He said while many people may not see workers out working on the project, most of the contstruction is bring done at night to minimize congestion.
Iwasaki compared work on roads to Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs, which put Americans to work during the depression, noting that transportation funding in California creates 18,000 to 33,000 jobs.
He said the CCTA is also looking at installing “drop lanes” for buses, particularly for Bishop Ranch in San Ramon. Those lanes would allow buses to exit and enter the highway from the HOV lanes without crossing three lanes of traffic.
Iwasaki said the Caldecott Tunnel is about a third of the way through on the Contra Costa side, with work on the Oakland side about 20 to 25 feet in. When finished, the new tunnel will eliminate the need for lane shifts for peak hours in one direction, which generally halts traffic headed the opposite way.
In other matters, Mayor Karen Stepper said the town is working on its General Plan update, with two three-hour meetings a month, and is looking at a renovation project at the Danville Hotel. Stepper also noted a piece in the Wall Street Journal that placed the town as the nation’s top per-capita spender on clothing.
The next breakfast meeting with Stepper will include a tour of the Veterans Hall project; as of this morning, much of the framing at the hall was in place, although there remains much work to do for the project to be concluded on schedule this year.
