Uvas Road at Little Uvas Creek Bridge Replacement Project Biological Assessment Biological Assessment Uvas Road over Little Uvas Creek Bridge Replacement Project (37C-0095/37C-0601 [new]) Near Morgan Hill, Santa Clara County, California 04-SCL-0-CR Federal Project Number BRLO 5937(124) Caltrans District 04 November 2015 Biological Assessment Uvas Road over Little Uvas Creek Bridge Replacement Project (37C-0095/37C-0601 [new]) Near Morgan Hill, Santa Clara County, California 04-SCL-0-CR Federal Project Number BRLO 5937(124) Caltrans District 04 November 2015 STATE OF CALIFORNIA Department of Transportation and Santa Clara County Roads and Airports Department Prepared By: ___________________________________ Date: ____________ Patrick Boursier, Principal (408) 458-3204 H. T. Harvey & Associates Los Gatos, California Approved By: ___________________________________ Date: ____________ Solomon Tegegne, Associate Civil Engineer Santa Clara County Roads and Airports Department Highway and Bridge Design 408-573-2495 Concurred By: ___________________________________ Date: ____________ Tom Holstein Environmental Branch Chief Office of Local Assistance Caltrans, District 4 Oakland, California 510-286-5250 For individuals with sensory disabilities, this document is available in Braille, large print, on audiocassette, or computer disk. To obtain a copy in one of these alternate formats, please call or write to the Santa Clara County Roads and Airports Department: Solomon Tegegne Santa Clara County Roads and Airports Department 101 Skyport Drive San Jose, CA 95110 408-573-2495 Summary of Findings, Conclusions and Determinations Summary of Findings, Conclusions and Determinations The Uvas Road at Little Uvas Creek Bridge Replacement Project (proposed project) is proposed by the County of Santa Clara Roads and Airports Department in cooperation with the Office of Local Assistance of the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), and this Biological Assessment (BA) has been prepared following Caltrans’ procedures. The Uvas Road Bridge crosses Little Uvas Creek along Uvas Road. It is located west of the city of Morgan Hill, approximately 200 feet (ft) north of the Uvas Road and Little Uvas Road intersection. It is located approximately 4 miles (mi) west of the town of Morgan Hill, and approximately 15 mi southwest of the City of San Jose, in unincorporated Santa Clara County, California. The basic elements of the Uvas Road at Little Uvas Creek Bridge Replacement Project include removing the existing narrow, Functionally Obsolete (FO) bridge (37C-0095) built in 1928, as it does not meet current design standards and traffic demands, and is also an impediment to flood flows in Little Uvas Creek for both the 50-year and 100- year storms. The proposed project would replace the existing bridge with a new, wider bridge that can accommodate two lanes of traffic with shoulders, realign the Uvas Road approaches to the new bridge, and install retaining walls (or other slope protection measures) at the new bridge abutments. The new bridge will be approximately 90 ft in length and approximately 43 ft in width, including two 12-ft lanes and two 8-ft shoulders. Excavation for the new bridge abutments will be to a depth of approximately 10 ft. The replacement bridge will be realigned by approximately 20 ft, angled east and west (upstream and downstream) of the current alignment of the existing bridge. The new bridge will be a single span pre-cast/pre- stressed I-girders and cast-in-place concrete deck structure, supported on seat type abutments with standard wingwalls, and will include concrete barrier rails and tubular hand railing. The purpose of this BA is to provide technical information and to review the proposed Project in sufficient detail to determine the extent to which the proposed Project may affect species listed or proposed as threatened or endangered under the Federal Endangered Species Act (FESA), as well as to determine the extent to which the proposed Project may affect designated or proposed critical habitat for these species. This BA focuses on the only federally listed species that have any potential to be affected by the Project, the federally threatened California tiger salamander (Ambystoma californiense) and California red-legged frog (Rana draytonii), and the federally endangered least Bell’s vireo (Vireo bellii pusillus). Uvas Road Bridge over Little Uvas Creek BA v Summary of Findings, Conclusions and Determinations The California red-legged frog breeds in the Project vicinity and may occur within the biological study area (BSA). Red-legged frogs are not expected to breed in the BSA due to high flows that can occur in that reach of Little Uvas Creek during portions of the breeding season, and the relative lack of suitable breeding habitat on Little Uvas Creek in the BSA. Red-legged frogs are more likely to use the BSA as dispersal habitat or nonbreeding foraging habitat. Thus, construction activities associated with the Project could result in the direct loss and disturbance of California red-legged frogs and their dispersal and foraging habitat. The proposed project would result in impacts to 5.02 ac of red-legged frog habitat, including the permanent loss of 2.74 ac of aquatic and upland dispersal habitat and the temporary loss of 2.28 ac of aquatic habitat for foraging, and upland habitat for cover and dispersal. However, approximately 1.24 ac of existing asphalt along Uvas Road would be removed by the proposed project, and these areas would be restored to grassland. As a result, the net permanent loss of potential California red-legged frog aquatic and upland refugial/dispersal habitat will total approximately 1.50 ac. Suitable breeding habitat for the California tiger salamander is absent from the BSA, but several ponds within 0.25 mi may be used for breeding by this species. The BSA contains upland habitat that could provide refugial and dispersal habitat for California tiger salamanders that might be breeding in these off-site ponds. Thus, construction activities associated with the proposed project could result in the direct loss and disturbance of California tiger salamanders and their dispersal and refugial habitat. The proposed project could result in impacts to as much as 5.02 ac of tiger salamander habitat, including the permanent loss of approximately 2.74 ac of potential tiger salamander refugial/dispersal habitat, and temporary impacts to approximately 2.28 ac of potential tiger salamander habitat. However, approximately 1.24 ac of existing asphalt along Uvas Road would be removed by the proposed project, and these areas would be restored to grassland. As a result, the net permanent loss of potential California tiger salamander upland refugial/dispersal habitat would total approximately 1.50 ac. The least Bell’s vireo is not known to breed or occur within the proposed project vicinity, and assessment of habitat by H.T. Harvey biologists indicates that there is a lack of suitable breeding habitat for the least Bell’s vireo within the BSA. Therefore, the species is not expected to occur within the BSA, and the proposed project would not impact least Bell’s vireo habitat, least Bell’s vireo populations, or individual least Bell’s vireos. Uvas Road Bridge over Little Uvas Creek BA vi Summary of Findings, Conclusions and Determinations The proposed project will be considered a “covered project” under the Santa Clara Valley Habitat Conservation Plan/Natural Community Conservation Plan (“VHCP”). The VHCP defines measures to avoid, minimize, and mitigate impacts on covered species and their habitats while allowing for the implementation of certain covered activities. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is a signatory of the VHCP, which will provide incidental take approval for the proposed project’s impacts to federally listed species via Section 10 of the FESA. In conformance with the VHCP, the proposed project proponent will be required to pay impact fees in accordance with the types and acreage of habitat impacted, and to implement conservation measures specified by the VHCP. This BA therefore incorporates avoidance, minimization, and compensatory mitigation measures, including the payment of impact fees in lieu of habitat mitigation for impacts to sensitive species and regulated habitats, based on the final VHCP Inner City Fund International (ICF International 2012). Implementation of these measures will adequately avoid, minimize, and compensate for impacts to the California red-legged frog, California tiger salamander, and least Bell’s vireo. The following effects determinations have been made on the species assessed in this BA: California red-legged frog: May affect, likely to adversely affect California tiger salamander: May affect, likely to adversely affect Least Bell’s vireo: No effect The proposed project will not jeopardize the continued existence of any of these three species due to its very limited extent, the low numbers of individuals of these species that could be affected by the proposed project, and the avoidance, minimization, and compensatory mitigation measures that will be implemented in compliance with the VHCP. No critical habitat has been designated in the proposed project area for any of these three species, and thus the proposed project will not result in adverse modification of critical habitat. Uvas Road Bridge over Little Uvas Creek BA vii Table of Contents Table of Contents Chapter 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................