A barrier threatening to delay or stop construction of the $420 million fourth bore of the Caldecott Tunnel between Orinda and Oakland was cleared Friday when Caltrans settled a lawsuit with Oakland and Berkeley neighborhood groups worried about noise and traffic from the project.
Now the Highway 24 project to ease traffic congestion needs one more thing to begin: a state budget settlement to free up voter-approved state bond money for the extra bore.
"This settlement is great news for drivers. We badly need this project to help us with this traffic bottleneck," said Amy Worth, an Orinda city councilwoman on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. "Now we need a state budget."
Caltrans hopes to begin construction this summer on the fourth bore, which would add an extra two lanes to the six in the Caldecott Tunnel so four lanes would be open to traffic in each direction at all times.
The settlement was filed Friday in Alameda County Superior Court by attorneys for Caltrans and the Fourth Bore Coalition, an alliance of groups including the North Hills Phoenix Coalition, the Parkwoods Community Association and the East Bay Bicycle Coalition.
The groups argued Caltrans had violated the California Environment Quality Act by not offering adequate measures to mitigate environmental impacts of the project and failing to offer any boost for transportation options along the corridor, such as public transit and riding bicycles to and Advertisementfrom BART.
In the settlement, Caltrans offered slightly more help and money to address the concerns, according to people briefed on the agreement.
As part of the settlement, Caltrans will commit $250,000 to study ways to improve transportation along the Highway 24 corridor through measures such as carpool lanes, toll lanes and improved public transit.
The plaintiffs were under pressure to settle because Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had publicly threatened to push for a state budget deal exempting the Caldecott fourth bore, Highway 50 carpool lanes in Sacramento and several other transportation projects from the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act.
That would have left the neighborhood and bicycling groups little leverage to press for concessions.
Stuart Flashman, a Fourth Bore Coalition attorney, said Friday the plaintiffs had agreed not to comment on the lawsuit settlement until after the governor and Legislature reach a budget deal.
"We'll talk to you after the state has a budget," he said.
High-ranking state legislators were pushing for a settlement in the Caldecott case to avert the possibility of lawmakers exempting a highway project from state environment laws to get a budget deal.
"The agreement would not have been possible without the help and leadership provided by the Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Assembly Member Mike Feuer," said Caltrans Director Will Kempton in a prepared statement.
He called the deal good for drivers, the environment and the economy, and said the work would generate thousands of jobs.
The biggest share of the Caldecott project funding would come from a sales tax increase approved by Contra Costa County voters and state Proposition 1B bonds approved by California voters in 2006.
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