2015 American Trails National Trails Award Nomination

2015 American Trails National Trails Award Nomination Planning/Design Level Three East Bay Regional Park District

East Bay Green Transportation Initiative

Between August 1, 2012 and July 31, 2014, the East Bay Green Transportation Initiative achieved several major milestones. In August 2012, the $1.7 million Alamo Canal Trail Undercrossing at Interstate 580 in Dublin, CA was completed and opened to the public, and in July 2014 the $5.2 million Iron Horse Trail: Santa Rita Road to BART was completed and opened to the public.

Established in 2010, the East Bay Green Transportation Initiative is a focused effort to highlight the important role paved trails play in the nation’s transportation infrastructure. East Bay Regional Park District, (EBRPD) a two- county special district encompassing 1,400 square miles on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay, is home to 2.6 million people. As part of EBRPD’s master planned mission, and originally promoted by EBRPD’s and American Trails visionary Hulet Hornbeck, a network of paved Regional Trails connecting parks, communities, employment centers and transit nodes was identified. As the trail network, now encompassing over 175 miles of paved Regional Trails, was expanded, use patterns that included commuters, students and other travelers, as opposed to purely recreational uses, were identified. EBRPD began collecting trail use data that clearly showed that paved trail usage tended to mirror commute patterns, with the heaviest usage coming during the peak morning and afternoon weekday commute hours.

Armed with that information, EBRPD established the East Bay Green Transportation Initiative, to work to secure a fair share of state and Federal transportation funding for non-motorized transportation alternatives. Staff produced a brochure, included in this application as Exhibit A, and began meeting with Federal, state and local transportation officials to lobby for increased transportation funding for trails. This effort culminated in a Federal TIGER II (Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery) award of $10.2 million 2011. EBRPD has leveraged that award to implement $18,500,000 in critical gap closure projects throughout the east bay, completing “last mile” connections to transit nodes, schools and employment centers.

As noted above, the Alamo Canal Trail Undercrossing at Interstate 580 was completed in August 2012. Prior to the completion of this project, trail users were required to make a 2 mile detour on busy city streets to travel from Dublin to Pleasanton in the Tri-Valley area of the east bay. The 800-ft long undercrossing, constructed adjacent to a flood control channel under 12 lanes of Interstate highway and connector ramps and a Bay Area Rapid Transit District main line, eliminated that detour. The Iron Horse Trail, Santa Rita Road to BART project, opened in July 2014, closed a 1.6 mile gap in the trail, completing a 32 mile long section of rail trail from Concord to Livermore.

Other East Bay Green Transportation Initiative milestones achieved between August 2012 and July 2014 include the commencement of construction on three additional Green Transportation Initiative projects. The $2.1 million East Bay Greenway pilot project, extending from the Coliseum BART station to 85th Avenue in Oakland, is under construction and will be completed in fall 2014. The $5.4 million San Francisco Bay Trail, Martinez Intermodal to Crockett project, an effort to repurpose a 1.7-mile failed section of a 1914 state highway to a paved trail along the Carquinez Strait is nearing completion as well. And the 1-mile San Francisco Bay Trail Hercules Intermodal Center segment, a $3.6 million effort, is now underway with a scheduled completion date of mid-2015.

East Bay Regional Park District’s planning efforts to identify the role paved trails pay in the region’s transportation infrastructure, quantify the benefits of paved trails in reducing highway congestion and lowering greenhouse gas emissions, and qualify paved trail projects for local, state and Federal transportation funding are worthy of recognition. The design and successful implementation of millions of dollars in completed projects between August 2012 and July 2014 demonstrate an outstanding enhancement to the trails movement in the East Bay.