To: Board of Supervisors
From: Warren Lai, Public Works Director/Chief Engineer
Report Title: Agreement between Contra Costa County and the East Contra Costa Regional Fee and Financing Authority (ECCRFFA) and the State Route 4 Bypass Authority (SR4BA) for the Vasco Road Safety Improvements - Phase 2 project, Brentwood Area.
☒Recommendation of the County Administrator ☐ Recommendation of Board Committee
RECOMMENDATIONS:
APPROVE and AUTHORIZE the Public Works Director, or designee, to execute a Joint Exercise of Powers Agreement with the East Contra Costa Regional Fee and Financing Authority (ECCRFFA) and the State Route 4 Bypass Authority (SR4BA) for the Vasco Road Safety Improvements - Phase 2 project (Project), Brentwood Area. (District III)
FISCAL IMPACT:
62% East Contra Costa Regional Fee and Financing Authority (ECCRFFA) funds, and 38% Regional Measure 3 (RM 3) funds.
BACKGROUND:
In the on-going effort to increase safety along Vasco Road, the Public Works Department has worked with traffic and design consultants to analyze the effects of a median barrier and develop project alternatives. Through this effort, the Public Works Department has identified a safety project in a segment of Vasco Road which has experienced a number of cross median collisions.
During the 12 years, from January 1996 through December 2007, there were 352 collisions on Vasco Road, of which eight were fatal (16 total fatalities) and 136 involved injuries. In the five years from 2010 to 2014, a total of 105 collisions occurred along Vasco Road with 74 people injured and one fatality. In the four years from 2020 to 2024, there were 206 collisions on Vasco Road. The highest cluster of collisions occurred in the southern portion of the road where terrain is hilly, the road is curvy, and two lanes narrow to one lane in the southbound direction. The Project is located in this area.
The completed Project will consist of widened lanes and a concrete median barrier along 1.5 miles of Vasco Road beginning approximately three miles north of the Contra Costa/Alameda County line. The Project will widen the existing roadway to provide the space necessary to construct a median barrier while maintaining the current number of travel lanes. Associated signing, striping, turn pockets, retaining walls, drainage improvements, wildlife mitigation, bridge widening, and barrier end-treatments will be constructed as necessary to accommodate the installation of median barriers.
The purpose of this Agreement is to specify the Parties that will be responsible for the design, project management, environmental clearance, utility relocation, right-of-way acquisition, construction management, construction, acceptance, and funding of the Project. This Agreement also designates SR4BA as the Party to exercise the power of eminent domain within the Parties’ jurisdictions for the purpose of acquiring property and property rights necessary for the Project, pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 1240.140.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
If the Public Works Department is not authorized to execute the Joint Exercise Powers Agreement, the design and construction of the project will be delayed, and funding may not be available for the improvements to Vasco Road.