From: lip@s1.gov (Loren I. Petrich)
Subject: My BART Extension Survey
Organization: LLNL
Distribution: ba
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 09:07:40 GMT

	Late in December of 1992, I did a survey of some BART
extension routes. And here is what I found:

	The one with the most interest to me, for rather obvious
reasons, is the Dublin/Pleasanton (D/P) extension. Construction for it
is visible all along I-238/I-580 over much of the extension's length
from the existing BART line to D/P itself. I stopped off at the
extension office one time, and I got some handouts as to what was to
be done. The office itself had a nice model of the Castro Valley
station, which will feature numerous trees planted in the
park-and-ride lot.

	The handouts described a lot of highway work in additional to
the BART-line construction:

	Widening I-238 between Ashland St. and the I-580/I-238
interchange; this segment passes over the existing BART line and is
currently 4 lanes.

	Rebuilding the bridge over the existing BART line. This is
necessarily to allow the D/P extension track to branch off from the
existing line.

	Widening I-580 in D/P itself. This is necessary to make room
for the West D/P station.

	Rebuilding the I-580 bridges over the abandoned San Ramon SP
branch. Though described as for "safety reasons", presumably to make
it less of a hump, it will also make room for the East D/P station.

	So that's where much of the $500 million for the D/P extension
will be going.

	For the Pittsburg-Antioch extension, there is already a lot of
work underway to reduce the 7% grade at Willow Pass and to make room
for the BART line in the middle of Hwy. 4. The Port Chicago Hwy.
between the Concord station and Hwy. 4 is also being rebuilt, with
walls going into place.

	I wonder how much of the $500 million for _that_ extension
will be going into highway work also.

	For the Colma/SFO extension, I made a rather long trip. I took
the SamTrans shuttle bus from Daly City to Colma, where I could see
the Daly City Yard, BART cars and all. The park-and-ride lot there was
pretty full. From there I walked, yes, _walked_ all the way to San
Bruno. I remember passing by someone pretty soon after and feeling
relieved that at least someone lives in that neighborhood (someone
_alive_, that is :-). The BART line is to follow the abandoned SP line
out to Daly City, and the only construction I could see is part of a
wall in the yard and some clearing of an area beyond the yard across
the street. There was no way to follow this line through the
cemeteries, though I did detect a path through a trailer park at the
intersection of El Camino Real and Mission Rd.

	The track started at a big building at the intersection of El
Camino Real and Hickey Blvd., a possible SSF BART station site. I
didn't walk along the track, but I could observe it in several places,
as, for example, some old crossing gates still present at Chestnut
Ave., another possible SSF BART station site.

	I started too late in the day, so it was dark when I arrived
in San Bruno. Where this line approached the still-existing line, I
could see where it had been cut off and the switch removed. I rested
awhile at the San Bruno Ave. crossing, where I saw several CalTrains
go by, before returning to the Daly City station by bus. It was
entertaining to see the northbound trains going "backward". The
southbound trains (~6 cars), seemed to have a lot of people on board.
I timed how long the San Bruno gates were down, and the gates went
down 1 minute before the train showed up, and came up again 10-15
seconds later.

	It looks like a _lot_ of construction will be needed to get
across San Bruno Ave., and CalTrain will presumably get a grade
separation there when BART gets down there.

	Somehow, I'm suspecting that they will build and open the
section to SSF and Tanforan Ave. first, and get to the airport later,
if only to assure people that BART service _is_ on the way.

	I also visited Fremont Central Park to see where the BART line
there would be going, and I have rather mixed feelings about an
elevated line going there. However, I'm not so sure that it is as
_horrible_ as it might seem at first thought.
-- 
/Loren Petrich, the Master Blaster
/lip@s1.gov
Newsgroups: ba.transportation,rec.railroad