A small community advisory committee is being put together by Caltrans to provide further local input on how Point Reyes Station’s historic bridge should be replaced.
“This is not really [Caltrans’] standard way of doing business, but I think West Marin is a nonstandard community deserving a voice about the gateway to their town,” Supervisor Steve Kinsey, who is recommending candidates to the agency, said.
The group will consist of five to 10 members and will include elected officials, county officials and residents active in discussions over the bridge, which has been deemed substandard for modern safety and accessibility requirements.
The group will help Caltrans “get more work done more quickly,” said Bob Haus, a Caltrans spokesperson. “The people we are putting on this committee are a fairly good consensus I think of how the community feels. We want to get their feelings about what might work the best.”
While the formation of this sort of advisory group is “not unheard of,” Mr. Haus said, Caltrans construction projects usually only receive input through public meetings and online comments. Caltrans and Mr. Kinsey have contacted several individuals they believe might fit the bill, though Caltrans will have final say over who is selected.
The group will meet three or four times over the coming months to discuss the pros and cons of the proposed project alternatives that were unveiled in March and updated in October.
Those alternatives include two versions of a steel truss bridge, a concrete bridge and a suspension cable bridge. In response to public concern over traffic exacerbations, environmental impacts and business disruptions from a years-long construction period, Caltrans introduced three additional “accelerated” construction methods that each cut the build time down to a matter of months.
In public discussions dating back to last March, many locals have called for the agency to simply retrofit the existing bridge with seismic upgrades. But Caltrans representatives have shot down the idea.
According to design standards set by the Caltrans Division of Design, the bridge should be expanded to 12-foot wide lanes, with four-foot wide shoulders on each side and a minimum six-foot wide sidewalk. To comply with disability access laws, the agency also says the sidewalk must have wheelchair ramps at each end.
Cathleen Dorinson, a retired financial consultant and an active member of Mainstreet Moms, was one of the locals asked to join the committee. Ms. Dorinson has urged community members to provide educated comments on the project. She attributed Mr. Kinsey’s recommendation of her to her “thoughtful, balanced thinking, and understanding of the way people move around town.”
“This community is unique in so many ways, and it has a wide variety of people who rely on the bridge on a daily basis,” she wrote in an email to the Light. “Their concerns need to be considered by those who will be building this bridge, most of whom have absolutely no idea of who we are and what is needed for us to function efficiently.”
Ms. Dorinson said she prefers the steel truss alternative that looks most like the existing bridge. But regardless of which design Caltrans ultimately picks, Ms. Dorinson has stayed steadfast in her opinion that the bridge needs to be replaced before it becomes a “crisis situation.”
Caltrans is expected to release an environmental impact report on the estimated $9 million bridge project, later this year.