Residents eager for details of high-speed rail, voice concerns

[Evan Goldin]

The project to bring high-speed rail to California is making significant progress, and residents of Potrero Hill, where the train will run through, are eager to see the details of the impact on the neighborhood and some voiced concerns about the impact the project could have on the area.

The Authority is planning the high-speed rail project, which will add two dedicated high-speed tracks, along with the existing two Caltrain and freight tracks through Potrero Hill. The project will eventually connect a new underground terminal at 1st and Mission with Union Station in Los Angeles, with trains running the distance in 2.5 hours at 220 miles per hour.

Representatives from the California High-Speed Rail Authority met with members of the SF County Transportation Authority Wednesday, and the meeting was open to the public. Dick Millet attended, and reported back about the meeting.

While Potrero Hill is largely devoid of grade-level streets crossing the tracks, Millet and some others are concerned about the impact of the project on the intersection of 16th, Mississippi and 7th streets, one of the most important grade-level intersections in the city, and the most important in the Potrero/Mission Bay area.

The current intersection is unquestionably dangerous and unfriendly to cars, bikes, pedestrians and even trains. However, plans currently call for depressing 16th Streeet (and possibly 7th and Missippippi streets), which continue to make things unsafe for pedestrians and cyclists, and further separate the new Mission Bay neighborhood from Potrero Hill/Showplace Square.

Millet voiced these concerns, and pointed out that "while drawings and videos abound on the Peninsula, the Authority has yet to issue any drawings or schematics of the intersection."

Popular San Francisco blog Streetsblog SF reported additional details on the meeting:

District 10 Supervisor Sophie Maxwell started off by saying she was concerned that dropping 16th under the tracks would "essentially create a freeway, creating unsafe conditions for cyclists and pedestrians and creating a breeding ground for graffiti." She said 16th Street was the only significant connection linking the Mission, Potrero and Showplace Triangle neighborhoods with the eastern waterfront.

She clarified she didn't want her comments to be construed as obstructionist or hindering "this huge, wonderful project," but she asked the authority to consider options that wouldn't divide neighborhoods further.

The question remains, however, what alternatives exist to depressing 16th Street. 16th Street cannot be raised, because of the limited vertical space available underneath the Interstate-280 causeway. Millet called on the Authority to consider a deep tunnel, but according to Robert Doty of the HSRA, via Streetsblog, "placing the rail lines under ground, whether in trenches or deep tunnels, would be very expensive. As a rule of thumb, the HSRA assumed that every dollar spent on at-grade construction would be seven dollars for a deep tunnel, three-to-four dollars for trenches."

Interstate-280 complicates the decisions quite a bit, The Caltrain right of way has plenty of room for four tracks — two for Caltrain and two for HSR — but 280 was built right in over the right of way, with its massive support columns making it difficult to add more tracks. Additionally, tunneling — or any construction — underneath 280 would have to be done in such a way that 280 would remain seismically sound.

Some residents have even begun calling for the Authority and the city to considering knocking back 280 from its current King Street offramp to Mariposa, or even Cesar Chavez, similar to the Octavia freeway knockdown.

The Boosters voted to send a letter to the Country Transportation Authority, asking for drawings, schematics and further study.