You Ask, Patch Answers: What's the Status of Sound Wall Petitions?

Question from a Rockridge Patch reader: "I was curious if there has been any progress on the sound wall project on 24? At the town meeting, they left the neighborhood in charge of collecting the needed signatures and gave them a year to get the 2/3 needed. Any way we can find out how it's coming?"

Answer: Stuart Flashman provided the information below. (Flashman, who has been active in the Rockridge Community Planning Council, noted in his answer that his involvement with the sound wall petition effort is as a private citizen, not as a representative of any organization.)

"I'm working with other neighbors along Highway 24 in Rockridge on a signature-gathering effort.  (This is a grassroots effort unconnected to any local organization.)  

"Our first priorities will be to:

"1) explain to residents what the petition process is, that the funds would pay for an accurate study showing who would benefit enough from sound walls to make them cost-effective, and that if the study isn't approved, the funds will go to lower priority projects, mostly street improvements and other sound wall studies in Temescal; and

"2) provide accurate information about how sound walls work, what they do (and don't do), and what they might look like in different parts of Rockridge.

"We're hoping to have a block captain for each block in the signature collection area, but we're still in the process of setting that up.  For the moment, people interested in helping out, or in just signing the petition, can contact me. 

"We think Rockridge residents need and deserve accurate information in order to make an informed decision on whether they want to support spending the funds to do the study."

People interested in helping out or signing the petition may contact Flashman at stuflash@aol.com.

Background: Victoria Eisen is a principal in the traffic and environmental planning firm of Eisen-LeTunic, which served as a consultant and project manager for the City of Oakland's Caldecott Tunnel Settlement Agreement with the State of California. She provided the information below.

"Both the city and the Fourth Bore Coalition felt that Caltrans did inadequate studies and didn't consider mitigations enough before building the fourth bore," Eisen said.

"The lawsuit provided the city with $8 million to spend on projects, but that isn't enough to build a sound wall."

Eisen said that after meeting with Rockridge area residents in January 2013, city staff identified households that could be affected by increased noise from additional traffic on Highway 24 as a result of building the fourth bore and notified them by letter.

The affected households are primarily from Vicente Way to Broadway on the eastbound side of Hwy. 24 and from Ross Street to Telegraph Avenue in the westbound direction, she said.

The city also released petitions that those residents could sign asking that the city use part of its settlement funds for a study of the feasibility of a sound wall alongside the freeway. Two-thirds of the affected households would need to sign the petition by March 2014 for the city to act on a sound wall study, Eisen said.

She said one concern of residents near Hwy. 24 seems to be the effect of increased traffic on their property values.

"I've heard from a number of people who bought their homes on a weekend and say they had no idea how much noise there could be on a weekday," Eisen said.

She noted that increased traffic from the fourth bore would be primarily in the off-peak direction. Caltrans officials have said that they will never have three bores (tunnels) open in one direction at a time, she said.

Eisen said she believes it's highly unlikely that a sound wall will ever be constructed in the Rockridge area.

"It probably wouldn't be effective except for a small number of houses," she said.

For more information: See the "Caldecott Fourth Bore" and "Soundwall" sections of the Rockridge Community Planning Council website. See also Caltrans's Caldecott Fourth Bore Project website.

How do you feel about the Caldecott Tunnel fourth bore and its effects on Rockridge residents? Do you think a study of the feasibility of sound walls is a good use of the city's settlement funds? Tell use in the comments section below.

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