Newell Bridge Meeting Feb. 27th 7:00 PM



If we build a 40-year bridge at Pope-Chaucer and use upstream diversion and detention to accommodate the estimated 1% (100-year) flow event, there may an opportunity to replace the Newell Road Bridge with a bridge smaller than Palo Alto's proposed 100-year super-bridge. This is yet another example of how deciding how we are going to deal with future potential 100-year flood protection: floodwalls (choice one) or upstream diversion and detention (choice two) needs to be done before designing replacement bridges. See 100-year alternatives.

 Update: report of meeting and community comments on Palo Alto Online

 There will be a community meeting about the project to replace the Newell Road bridge Thursday, February 27, 2014 @ 7:00 pm at the Palo Alto City Hall City Council Chambers.

The existing Newell Road Bridge abutments are located within the creek bed, causing a flow constriction in the channel that prevents it from accommodating the estimated 1% (100-year) flow event. The current bridge obstructs the flow of the creek during high flow events, posing a flooding hazard once replacement of the upstream Pope/Chaucer bridge is completed. Source: invitation below. 

 The assertion that there will be a problem at Newell assumes the construction of SCVWD's Pope/Chaucer alternative one or alternative two, both built as 100-year bridges, then choked down to 40-year until future potential downstream channel widening,  floodwalls, etc.

 The current (2010) Santa Clara Valley Water District hydraulic model for San Francisquito Creek indicates that the existing Newell Road Bridge opening can convey a "23-year" peak flow of about 5900 cubic feet per second (cfs). Source: Newell Road Project Website A 40-year flow is about 7,600 cvs at the Newell Road Bridge, so about a 30% larger capacity bridge would match the 40-year flow at Pope-Chaucer.  Like at Pope-Chaucer, it seems like a much smaller bridge would work.

Community Meeting  The City of Palo Alto and the City of East Palo Alto invite residents to attend a community meeting about the project to replace the Newell Road bridge over San Francisquito Creek.  At this community meeting, project staff will describe the results and findings of an alternatives analysis/traffic study that used a set of screening criteria to identify feasible bridge replacement alternatives to be studied further in an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) that will be prepared for the project.  The meeting will provide an opportunity for members of the public to provide comments and ask questions about the analysis and its findings. The meeting will be held at:
Palo Alto City Hall
City Council Chambers
250 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto
Thursday, February 27, 2014 @ 7:00 pm

Project Background
The City of Palo Alto, in coordination with the City of East Palo Alto and the San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority (JPA), is managing a project to replace the Newell Road bridge over San Francisquito Creek in order to prevent flooding and to enhance the safety of motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians. The current bridge obstructs the flow of the creek during high flow events, posing a flooding hazard once replacement of the upstream Pope/Chaucer bridge is completed.
Preliminary designs to replace the bridge began in 2012, and residents have shared their concerns with the design concepts at a series of community meetings.  The City of Palo Alto has committed to conduct an EIR process to provide additional review opportunities and to include multiple project alternatives.  At the last community meeting on October 17, 2013, project staff presented the screening criteria to be used in the alternatives analysis, which reviewed the feasibility of eight project alternatives identified from initial public input. The screening criteria were designed to eliminate those alternatives that could potentially lead to an increase in traffic volume and/or speeds on Newell Road, or divert existing traffic onto neighboring streets, based on the findings of a technical traffic study.
Next Steps
The alternatives analysis has identified two project alternatives that satisfy the screening criteria and are recommended for inclusion in the EIR review process:  bridge replacement along existing alignment and bridge replacement along partially realigned alignment.  The remaining alternatives were screened out due to their negative traffic impacts on Newell Road and surrounding streets.  At the community meeting, the methodology and findings of the traffic study and the alternatives analysis will be reviewed.  The next community meeting will be the EIR scoping meeting at which members of the public can provide input regarding project design and the types of issues and impacts to be analyzed in the EIR.
Please visit www.cityofpaloalto.org/newell for additional information about the project.  Following final staff review, the traffic study and alternatives analysis report will be posted to the web site for public review by Monday, February 24.
PROJECT CONTACTS
Public Works Department - Engineering Services Division
Email: pwecips@cityofpaloalto.org
Project Manager:  Joe Teresi  (650) 329-2129
Project Engineer:  Rajeev Hada  (650) 329-2469





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