[ebbc-talk] Danville to build new trail
Trail aims to make busy road safer
By Linda Davis
Contra Costa Times
DANVILLE -- A tragic accident has spurred the town and
residents to
support building a new mile-long trail near Camino
Tassajara that
would keep bicyclists and pedestrians away from the
sometimes
dangerous road.
The proposed trail -- at an estimated cost of $485,000
-- would
start near Jasmine Way off Camino Tassajara in eastern
Danville and
continue west to Tassajara Ranch Drive. It would
provide a safer way
for nearby Diablo Vista Middle School's students to
pass through
adjoining neighborhoods on their way home or to the
shopping center
at Camino Tassajara and Crow Canyon Road. The trail
would also
provide a safer path for bicyclists, skaters, moms
with strollers
and others, town officials said.
The trail, funded and maintained by the town, would
cross Rassani
Drive, near the site of the October accident that took
the lives of
Troy and Alana Pack, children riding their bicycles on
the sidewalk
along Camino Tassajara when they were killed by a
hit-and-run driver
whose car jumped the curb. The driver, baby nurse
Jimena Barreto, is
awaiting trial.
Town manager Joe Calabrigo said that for years the
town had hoped
to develop a trail link out to Tassajara Ridge
neighborhoods. Other
established neighborhoods in central Danville, such as
Greenbrook,
are honeycombed with interconnecting trails to
schools, parks and
the like.
Money for building and paving the trail will come by
transferring
funds from other capital projects, Calabrigo said. The
bulk of it,
about $300,000, was earmarked for traffic improvements
at Monte Vista
High School on Stone Valley Road. But, says Calabrigo,
that project
is up in the air while the San Ramon Valley school
district works
with developers of the Humphrey Ranch project across
the street from
the school.
The town will have to get permission from the
Southwest Area
Transportation Authority and the county to divert the
$300,000 to
the trail. If there is a delay in obtaining the money,
the town is
prepared to tap another revenue source if necessary,
mayor Newell
Arnerich said. And to finish by this summer, they need
the money
soon, he said.
Added Calabrigo, "The town has the discretion to
reprogram money
that has not been spent."
The other $185,000 would come from unspent
appropriations from the
townwide trails fund and money saved from an
artificial turf parks
project that cost less than anticipated.
A previous obstacle to building the trail --
permission from four
homeowners associations to grant trail easements to
the town -- has
been overcome, Calabrigo said. All four homeowners
associations have
agreed to cooperate.
"Human nature is such that when something like this
(tragedy)
happens, people want to respond by doing something
productive. People
have a greater comfort level with a degree of
separation (from the
road) for cyclists and pedestrians," the town manager
said.
A design engineer has been hired, and easement grants
are being
prepared. The town hopes to get the trail built by
summer.
"Out of a very tragic event comes awareness that there
has always
been a need for more safe pedestrian pathways,"
Arnerich said. "The
community is saying 'this is important to us, yes we
should do this.'
There is an expectation it will get done quickly to
show that a
community cares."
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And Paul's comment about the
Regional Transportation Plan needing to factor in much higher gas
proces is dead on target...)
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