Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "california department of transportation"

A new deli to fill your belly

2011-06-03T23:28:34Z

Midtown Deli is expected to open next week at the Alexan Midtown complex.

Subcontractor Butch Plank came up with the idea to open an upscale deli when working at the apartment complex while it was under construction in 2009 at the northeast corner of Alhambra Boulevard and S Street.

He plans to have a soft opening Monday and Tuesday, followed by a grand opening Wednesday.

Plank had a hard time finding sit-down restaurants nearby as he installed all the doors on 275 apartments at the site, which sits across from the California Department of Transportation.

The Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op, which is kitty-corner from the apartment complex, also has a deli with a dining area. But Plank wanted to open a full restaurant where people could relax without the bustle of the co-op.

"There was no place to eat down here," said Plank, who co-owns a door company, Michael Hopper Construction Company.

The Roseville resident also liked the neighborhood and the apartment complex itself. But he has no previous restaurant experience.

So Plank hired former Beach Hut Deli manager Jenny Hunt to manage the place after her brother, a plumber, introduced them. Hunt worked at a Beach Hut while growing up in Jackson and later managed several other Beach Huts.

"My only experience with delis was eating at them," Plank said.

Although the apartment complex was finished in January 2010, the corner space at 1899 Alhambra Blvd. had nothing more than a dirt floor inside when Plank decided to lease it last fall. The restaurant now holds booths with granite tables and other seating for 24, two wide-screen TVs and a new kitchen. A sidewalk patio will seat 14.

The restaurant will sell classic deli sandwiches, salads, paninis, wraps, soup, appetizers, beer and wine. It will also offer pastries and coffee for breakfast.

The hours will be 7 a.m. - 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. - 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. on Sunday.

Alexan Midtown Business Manager Megan Mier said office staff and tenants have been waiting eagerly for the deli to open.

"Our residents are very excited,” she said. “It'll be a great benefit for everyone.”

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @SuzanneHurt.

Money woes pile up for Railyards developer

2010-07-31T02:14:09Z

Thomas Enterprises' problems with financing the Railyards development have reached a critical point after the state of California began efforts to yank more than $70 million in funding from the project.

The California Department of Housing and Community Development has put the Georgia developer on notice that it's freezing disbursements because Thomas is in default on more than $187 million in private loans on the 244-acre project.

The state agency sent out a letter July 22 warning Thomas to pay the amount in arrears in order to bring the loans back into good standing and get the lender, Inland American Real Estate Trust of suburban Chicago, to end foreclosure actions within 30 days.

The letter was a 30-day pre-notice of default alerting Thomas Enterprises it is now in breach of contract with the state. Inland filed its default notices June 15.

Work on bridges for Fifth and Sixth streets continued Friday afternoon. However, the move could lead to at least a partial stop in development work at the historic railyards. Thomas already owes various companies more than $5 million for work done so far, said Thomas Enterprises Vice President Suheil Totah.

Next week, company officials will meet with construction contractors, engineers and other vendors to ask them to continue working on the project.

"This letter has now elevated the loan dispute from urgent to critical," Totah said. "Our hope is they would continue their work to allow time for this matter to be resolved."

The state had previously awarded four grants totaling $78 million in Proposition 1C money for development of the railyards. Of that, $50 million in infill grants was awarded directly to Thomas, and nearly $28 million in transit-oriented development grants were awarded to the city on behalf of the project. About $7 million has already been disbursed over the last six months, said Chris Westlake, deputy director of the state's Housing and Community Development department.

"We're concerned with the notice of default that was filed. Any existing liens or mortgages have to be current," he said. "Since these are state bond funds, we are very careful with how they are being utilized."

The letter notified Thomas it is in danger of defaulting on the first grant, which totals $30 million. For now, disbursements are simply being halted. That was the first notice sent out — how much they're in danger of losing has yet to be determined, Westlake said.

"It all depends on what happens with the foreclosure action by Inland," he said. "We have to reassess it at that time."

Thomas officials are worried they may lose additional funding as well.

"The loss of up to $80 million in state funding could have a ripple effect on some of the other funding," Totah said.

Thomas Enterprises has planned a $6 billion redevelopment of the historic Southern Pacific railyards that would add 12,000 residential units, 1.4 million square feet of retail, 2.3 million square feet of office, 500,000 square feet of mixed-use space and 46 acres of parks and open space. The Railyards would be centered around renovated historic railroad shops and a future regional transportation center adjacent to downtown.

The company and Inland have each proposed different options to resolve loan issues, but no agreement has been reached, according to Totah and an Inland official.

"Inland American continues to make its best effort to work with Thomas Enterprises, Inc., the developer of the Sacramento Railyards project, to address the current default status of the loans on the property," Inland spokesman Matt Tramel said in an e-mail.

"Inland American's continued intention with all parties, including the Department of Housing and Community Development and the city of Sacramento, is to work to promote the completion of all activities related to development at the Railyards project," he said.

The $30 million grant was awarded for interior roads and other infrastructure work — not for bridge work — as long as 15 percent of the housing Thomas builds there is affordable. A $17 million transit-oriented development grant is being used to build the Fifth Street bridge.

Work on the Sixth Street bridge is not yet in jeopardy, because the California Department of Transportation awarded that funding in the form of Proposition 1B transportation bond monies.

Sacramento city officials are disappointed over the latest development, but don't believe any grant monies awarded to the city are at risk, city Department of Transportation spokeswoman Linda Tucker wrote in an e-mail.

"None of our funding is in jeopardy as a result of what is going on between the state and Thomas Enterprises," she said. "We remain cautiously optimistic that the state will receive the necessary assurances from Thomas Enterprises within the time frame required so grant funding can continue. That's the indication we have from them."

If the loan dispute is not resolved and Inland sells the railyards land to another developer in a foreclosure sale, which would be expected in early October, state grants are not assumable by a new development company, said Westlake, adding that the state remains committed to the project.

"We want to get the housing built. Getting construction jobs going and keeping them going is critical to the state," he said. "However, we have to be prudent and careful with the large taxpayer dollars involved in the project."

Totah said he remains "optimistic" the company can overcome the current financial challenges. The potential of losing the property and all the work that has gone into the project over nearly a decade is "very alarming," he said.

"If this one is not overcome, it would have irreparable damage and would set the project back a long time," he said.

Photo of Suheil Totah of Thomas Enterprises by Suzanne Hurt, a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Photos of railyards development by Kati Garner.

Agencies plan RR track mitigation

2009-09-17T01:07:56Z

Concerns about historic Southern Pacific railroad shops and other archaeological resources delayed the environmental review process for the future regional transportation center proposed for the Railyards.

A complicated review process also caused delays as federal, state and city planners worked out plans to mitigate environmental and other impacts expected from the future depot, which will connect with the historic Sacramento Valley Station.

Under the National Environmental Protection Act, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) conducted a review of the city's proposal to prevent or offset impacts to wildlife, air and water quality, historic buildings, building occupants and train passengers during construction and operation of the new depot and relocated train tracks. The environmental assessment was approved Aug. 31.

Federal agencies conducted concurrent reviews of the environmental assessment, so the process took less time than it would have in the past, according to the FHWA. The process took more than a year, compared to the average three to five years a linear review usually takes.

Still, the number of agencies involved, the lack of experience some agencies have with environmental reviews and the fact that conducting concurrent environmental reviews is a new procedure postponed a decision the city expected months ago, said Ellie Buford, the city's principal planner for the environmental review of Sacramento's intermodal facility.

"Last-minute" concerns arose over potential impacts to the built environment's historic properties, archaeological resources which are listed or eligible to be listed with the National Register of Historic Places, she said.

Those properties are the Central Shops Historic District, which dates back as far as 1868; the Sixth Street levee, built from 1852 to 1880; the Sacramento Southern Pacific Railroad Station District, built in 1925; and the Southern Pacific Railroad Depot, a national landmark now known as Sacramento Valley Station, built in 1925.

The train tracks will be moved closer to the Central Shops. The future depot will be located between the Central Shops and the Sacramento Valley Station.

The agencies involved want to make sure the four historic properties are protected, according to the FHWA. In the last stage of the review process, a document was added that spells out additional ways these resources will be protected.

According to the new document, known as the Intermodal Built Environment Treatment Plan, the city must assess the current condition of historic properties and monitor the foundation of the historic central railroad shops during construction and operation of the train tracks and depot for vibration and stability. The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) must determine the protective measures required for each phase of the intermodal project.

A detection of harmful vibrations could lead to a stop in construction and the need to use alternative construction methods, as well as reinforce the buildings, Buford said.

The worst-scenario is that vibrational impacts from driving pilings into the ground and other construction could cause the shops to fall down, said Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer Stephen Mikesell, who has been heavily involved in the environmental review on behalf of the California Office of Historic Preservation.

While that is "highly unlikely," the possibility has led to the need for monitoring, he said.

Geotechnical studies indicated that no structural damage would occur from the construction or operation of the tracks, Buford said.

The state Office of Historic Preservation signed off on the environmental assessment with full confidence, Mikesell said.

"I feel pretty good that the resources are pretty well-protected," he said. "We're confident the city is prepared to do the right thing."

The document spells out the city's right to enter the Central Shops, which are privately owned by Railyards developer Thomas Enterprises, to conduct the monitoring. That agreement had to be worked out in recognition of the public-private partnership which is simultaneously developing the Railyards and adjacent depot, which is integral to design plans for the Railyards.

In addition, the document requires the city to hire a qualified consultant to prepare historic structure reports for each of the properties, in accordance with Historic American Building Survey/Historic American Engineering Record standards.

If the finding must be registered with the Library of Congress, the FHWA must ensure the Caltrans contacts the National Park Service (NPS) to determine the documentation needed for each resource, according to the document. Then, Caltrans must get NPS approval of at least documentary photographs before any construction can begin that would impact a historic property.

Otherwise, appropriate documentation must be determined by the California State Parks Office of Historic Preservation and Caltrans. The document also requires the city to prepare archival copies of the documentation for federal or state repositories.

The Sixth Street levee is important because it represents three distinct episodes in levee construction, which document residents' struggle with decades of flooding by the American and Sacramento rivers. The levee preserves the technological responses used at the time and may contain artifacts. Settlers built the levee, one of the city's first, using anything they had. Specialists will have to go through a section of it to see if pottery or any other archaeologically valuable items were used, Buford said.

The Native American Heritage Commission told the city its Sacred Lands File contains no record of native American cultural resources in the project area. Four native Americans and a group representing native Americans didn't respond to the city's requests for information about whether the site was believed to contain artifacts or significance.

In the document, standard mitigation measures were outlined to protect the endangered Swainson’s hawk and Valley Elderberry Longhorn beetle, as well as bats and purple martins identified as species of concern, or their habitat.

Elderberry bushes provide critical habitat for the beetle. Three elderberry bushes within 20 feet of existing tracks must be moved to a nature preserve or mitigation bank to prevent disturbance from heavy construction equipment. The other bush, which is more than 20 feet from the site of the future tracks, can be fenced.

A survey will be conducted to determine if Swainson's hawks are nesting in trees during their February to September breeding season. If so, heavy construction equipment won't be used within 2,000 yards, according to Buford.

Purple martins have been nesting under a ramp from the I Street bridge. Biologists have recommended planting pine trees to offset the loss of disturbed nesting space under the ramp, erecting permanent perching wires to offset other utility wires that are coming down and other measures that would protect nesting materials and flight. Biologists also may build bird houses for the species, she said.

Biologists must update information about bats, which include the pallid and Pacific Western big-eared bats. Intermittent roosting but no nesting was observed under I-5 and the I Street ramp. Mitigation measures will be determined based on what a new study finds, she said.

Photos by David Watts Barton. Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

New depot gets environmental OK

2009-09-16T02:49:20Z

Sacramento's future regional transportation center has gotten a green light to move on to its final design phase after clearing a federal environmental hurdle, months later than expected.

The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) on Friday confirmed the city's proposed "intermodal facility" has made it through the federal environmental review process required due to federal funding for the project. Approval was delayed due to the complicated review process and concerns about the impact on historic Southern Pacific railroad shops and other historic properties.

Federal transportation officials, along with other federal and state agency staff, have determined the new depot will not have significant impact on the environment as long as proposed mitigation measures are followed.

The FHWA signed off on the project's environmental assessment by issuing a "finding of no significant impact," or FONSI, for the first two phases of the transportation center, an expansion of the historic Sacramento Valley Station into the 244-acre Railyards development site. The FHWA actually signed off on the FONSI Aug. 31 and then notified the city of Sacramento, the lead agency on the project.

This environmental approval allows the city to submit construction authorizations for phases 1 and 2 to the California Department of Transportation by Dec. 1. Meeting that deadline ensures the project will still get $20 million in stimulus funding for the $56 million track relocation.

"It's a very important milestone for our project," said Hinda Chandler, project manager and a senior architect with the city's Department of Transportation.

Construction of Railyards infrastructure is expected to start within a month after the California Department of Housing and Community Development agreed to begin doling out $47 million in Prop. 1C money awarded in June 2008 to Railyards developer Thomas Enterprises. Following a six-week hiatus, the company will begin building the bridge at Fifth and H streets to extend Fifth Street into the Railyards.

The environmental approval allows the city to get easements and permits for utility relocation and to initiate final design work, in order to show by Dec. 1 that the city is ready to begin construction. The city had expected to get FHWA's approval on the environmental review process months ago, according to Chandler and Linda Tucker, spokesperson for the city's transportation department.

While construction had initially been anticipated for this fall, the delay put off construction for Phase 1 — track relocation — until March 2010, due to the lengthy bidding process that must now be held. Construction of Phase 2 — $30 million in expansions and improvements to the existing depot at Fifth and I streets — is expected to begin once track relocation is complete.

The expansion is expected to equip Sacramento to meet regional transportation needs for freight trains, service operators and passengers until at least 2025.

Sacramento Valley Station sits on a major national trade route called the Central Corridor, whose western junction is the high-volume Port of Oakland. The volume of imports and exports handled by the port via Sacramento has outgrown the 1925 station's current track setup, where freight and passenger trains share three tracks.

This has created a bottleneck for freight trains. As freight rail tonnage is expected to double by 2025, the situation would only get worse, and the Port of Oakland would be unable to handle growing trade.

Building tracks devoted to freight is expected to eliminate the bottleneck and enable a higher volume of freight trains to move more quickly through Sacramento, Tucker said.

In addition, Sacramento's station has not been able to keep up with the increasing number of train passengers. The station is already California's second-busiest train depot and the seventh busiest in the country, with 1.5 million train users each year and a roughly estimated 200,000 others using light rail, taxis, and local and Amtrak buses.

Cities are finding that downtown train stations are easier to access than airports outside cities. Train travel is becoming more popular after a decline that lasted 50 years, Chandler said.

Ridership is especially growing between Sacramento and the Bay Area. Expanding the transportation center to include a bigger, modern terminal and more space for trains, buses and other transportation is expected to draw up to 7.5 million users by 2025, and as many as 15 million if high-speed rail is added, Chandler said.

The station has eight Amtrak bus bays. The new regional center is expected to include 24 local bus bays and 11 for Amtrak and Greyhound buses, plus room for high-speed rail if needed.

In June, the Sacramento City Council voted against its 2007 decision to move the existing station 300 feet north, next to relocated train tracks. Councilmembers changed their minds after discovering an unnecessary station relocation would make the city ineligible to get federal funding for up to 80 percent of the project.

A California Environmental Quality Act review was conducted previously. Under the National Environmental Protection Act, an environmental review must be conducted by the lead federal agency when a project is getting federal funding. The new transportation center will get money from federal highway, transit and railroad programs through the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The FHWA and other agencies have been carefully reviewing the city’s proposal for more than a year. The other agencies include the California Department of Transportation, the state Office of Historic Preservation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), the Federal Transit Administration and their state equivalents.

"It's a pretty good-sized project," said FHWA spokesperson Doug Hecox. "It's something we (took) great pains to be careful about."

The agencies worked quickly to make sure the project wouldn't lose the stimulus funding in what FRA spokesperson Warren Flatau described as "choreographed bureaucratic collaboration."

"Everyone (was) committed to doing this in record time," he said.

To expedite the project, the agencies conducted concurrent reviews — a relatively new practice. Until two or three years ago, federal environmental reviews took an average of three to five years, and sometimes up to eight, while each agency took its turn reviewing the environmental assessment document, according to the FHWA.

An environmental review for Phase 3, estimated to cost $252 million, must be done at a later date because the design for that phase is still only conceptual, Chandler said.

That phase could involve major renovation of the historic station building. Phase 3 isn't funded and may not happen for many years, said Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer Stephen Mikesell, who has been heavily involved in the environmental review on behalf of the California Office of Historic Preservation.

A combination of federal, state and local funding is being used to finance the entire project. Last year, the project was awarded another $20 million in trade corridor funds under state Proposition 1B to fund track construction that will eliminate the bottleneck.

The city expects the state to issue bonds and award that funding within six months. If the state is no longer able to provide that funding, the city is confident the funds can be found elsehwere, Tucker said.

The city applied for $6 million more for Phase 1 in August, and on Tuesday, expects to submit an application for $30 million more, mostly for Phase 2.

An engineering consultant is designing the relocation of freight and passenger tracks, which will be moved north by 300 feet at the closest point and 500 feet at the farthest. The tracks will be straightened to allow long platforms and thus, longer trains.

Tracks will no longer be shared upon completion of this project. Four passenger tracks, two passenger platforms and at least two freight tracks will be built. The new configuration should increase passenger safety while no longer requiring freight trains to slow down as much. The tracks and new, longer platforms will allow more and longer trains, Tucker said.

Relocation of the tracks should take about a year. Tracks and signals will then be tested for three to four months. The new tracks are expected to be operating by mid-2011, Chandler said.

The historic rail station became a government facility in 2006, when the city bought that and nine acres of land from Thomas Enterprises. Amtrak leased the station from Union Pacific prior to the developer's purchase of the site.

The city is in arbitration with Thomas Enterprises as the two sides try to agree on the value and price for another 24 acres that the city has an option to buy, Chandler said. Negotiations aren't holding up track relocation.

The existing station will continue to be used as the depot during construction of the first two phases. Improvements to the historic station will include restoring an entrance at Fourth and I streets, which will highlight the station's architecture and allow passengers to enter from the front.

Once the larger facility is built to the north across the tracks, the historic depot will be used as a gateway to the new depot and as one location for baggage and ticketing.

"We feel it'll be a seamless blend of old and new," Chandler said.

However, the long-term use of the existing depot hasn't been settled. That could continue to be used as part of the depot or for an unrelated purpose, Mikesell said.

Photos by Eric Whalen. Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Amtrak locomotive gets an eco-makeover

2009-07-23T07:20:19Z

California's air may start to look a little cleaner, thanks to the California Department of Transportation and its project partners.

Caltrans's revolutionary "green locomotive" debuted Wednesday morning at the Amtrak Sacramento Valley station.

Members of Caltrans and its project partners assembled within the train station at a press release to make statements regarding the new locomotive, considered a major step toward reducing California's carbon footprint.

It is one of the 15 F59PHI model locomotives owned by Caltrans and operated by Amtrak that is now installed with a 710ECO Repower upgrade package. The package is said to consist of the latest microprocessor-controlled locomotive engine technology for lower emissions, increased fuel economy and predictable maintenance costs.

The F59PHI models were initially built by Electro-Motive Diesel, Inc. in October 2001 to meet Tier 0 Environmental Protection Agency emissions standards, the minimum EPA requirement for fuel emissions from passenger locomotives.

James Goldstene, executive officer of the California Air Resources Board, explained that in other words, the newly-installed technology in the F59PHI model makes the engine run cooler and uses fuel more efficiently, allowing the locomotive to advance from Tier 0 to Tier 2 EPA emission standards, resulting in a 50 percent reduction of operating emissions.

Sacramento County Supervisor Roger Dickinson said that the development is "an illustration of our willingness to work with anyone and everyone to clean up the air for Sacramentans." He added that climate change and global warming is an issue that must be addressed at the local level by communities, and that the newly-introduced technology makes riding the train a "smarter and better" decision than ever before.

Following the statements, the representatives of Caltrans, the EPA and other organizations descended into the tunnel beneath the Sacramento Valley rail tracks, resurfacing to stop and admire the "green locomotive."

The retrofitted model has already begun operating on the intercity passenger rail service Capitol Corridor between Sacramento and the Bay Area as of three weeks ago.

The Capitol Corridor serves the Sierra Foothills in addition to Sacramento and the Bay area, and it is operated by the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority in partnership with Caltrans and Amtrak.

Along with Amtrak California’s Pacific Surfliner and San Joaquin intercity rail line, Capitol Corridor is the third busiest rail line in the nation with a ridership of 1.7 million.

Capitol Corridor alone is responsible for eliminating 559 million miles worth of highway travel, said Eugene Skoropowski, Capitol Corridor managing director.

Caltrans is working to convert the remaining 14 Amtrak-operated locomotives to this upgraded model — which is the cleanest diesel electric passenger locomotive in the country — as quickly as possible, stated Caltrans Division of Rail chief Bill Bronte. So far there is available stimulus funding for seven of the 14, he said.

Money for the project came from the Carl Moyer Program, a partnership between the California Air Resources Board and local air boards in the state that provides grants for projects reducing pollutants from heavy-duty engines. Retrofitting the F59PHI involved both the Sacramento Metropolitan and Bay Area Air Quality Management districts.

Kevin Bahline of EMD said that the company is in the process of launching the eco-friendly technology globally.

See also: Eco train engine unveiled

Photo Credit: Images 1, 2, 4 & 5 by Ed Fogle; images 3 & 6 by Kati Garner.

Eco train engine unveiled

2009-07-18T00:51:02Z

A greener locomotive will make its official California debut in Sacramento Wednesday.

The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) will present the locomotive during a press conference at the Sacramento Valley Rail Station, which holds a prestigious spot in railroad history as the western starting point for the Transcontinental Railroad.

Caltrans and Amtrak are partners operating "Amtrak California." Caltrans owns this locomotive, plus 16 others and 88 train cars. Amtrak operates the trains and stations.

The first in the Amtrak California passenger fleet, the locomotive has been upgraded to operate using the cleanest diesel technology available for train engines.

“This is really a big step for Caltrans. We took a proactive role to get a cleaner locomotive on the tracks, and we’re proud to see this project through,” said Caltrans Director Will Kempton. "It aligns with Gov. (Arnold) Schwarzenegger's objectives to clean up Caltrans’ carbon footprint, and it contributes to the bigger goal of California going green."

The locomotive -- built in 2001 by Illinois-based Electro-Motive Diesel -- was upgraded in May by the same company to produce lower greenhouse gas emissions and use less fuel, among other things.

The locomotive has been powering Amtrak trains on the Capitol Corridor Route between Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area since June.

Amtrak California expects to reduce its operating emissions by up to almost 50 percent after converting 14 other locomotives of the same model to this technology, according to Caltrans' rail division.