Residents weigh in on electrification changes

Greg Parks, a spokesman for the project, said officials are targeting December to begin tree pruning and removal along a stretch of the corridor running through San Carlos and Belmont, with excavation and foundation-building for the poles and wires in the fleet’s new electrical system expected to start in the summer of 2018 and last three or four months. By fall of 2018, officials are hoping to begin installing the poles and wiring, which would complete the overhead contact system designed to connect the electric train cars to their power source.

Parks said workers are expected to install an estimated 100 poles within the Belmont stretch of the corridor and 130 poles in San Carlos, with much of the work to be done at night between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. and, at times, on weekends, so daytime Caltrain service is not interrupted. With an estimated 180 feet between each pole, Parks said multiple poles could be installed in one day and that crews would move from one section of the corridor to another in subsequent days.

“Hopefully we’re not impacting one specific area for too long,” he said.

After one San Carlos resident expressed concerns she had already heard noise at night in her home near the tracks, Marty Gillman, a representative of Balfour Beatty Rail, the company carrying out the electrification work, said crews have only done geotechnical studies of that stretch of corridor so far. He said crews have used vacuum excavators to determine if utilities are located near potential pole locations, but have not started the foundation work yet.

Other residents asked officials if work could be scheduled during the day to avoid disrupting residents at night when they are home. Gillman said as much work as possible would be completed during the day, but the width of the right-of-way could be a limiting factor in some areas where it is narrow and wouldn’t allow for construction equipment and trains to pass through at the same time.

Gillman added that noise would be monitored throughout construction and residents could contact Caltrain representatives to lodge complaints should they hear loud noises. Parks said project representatives would hold community meetings before the poles and wiring are installed to provide project updates. Others were concerned about the placement of the poles and if there are any visual mitigations planned for them. Gillman said poles would be placed in the center of the tracks where possible, but may have to be located on the outside of the tracks when there is not enough room in the center.

Parks addressed another concern many residents had about how the trees along the corridor would be affected. He said 25 trees in the Caltrain right-of-way will be removed in Belmont, with nine on Caltrain property pruned more than 25 percent and 14 others pruned less than 25 percent. In San Carlos, he said one tree in the Caltrain right-of-way and 10 on public property are expected to be removed, with 17 on Caltrain property to be pruned more than 25 percent and more than 50 others to be pruned less than 25 percent. Parks said any trees removed or pruned more than 25 percent would be replaced with either the same species or something similar.

“We have a full tree replacement plan, it’s really based on what tree is being removed,” said Parks.

Resident Sarah Kelsey asked officials if information on the size and tree species planned to replace the ones removed could be made available on the project website and also wondered if plans to replace them could wait until a decision on how high-speed rail service would be incorporated with Caltrain service through the corridor. Kelsey was particularly concerned about whether two additional passing railroad tracks between San Mateo and Redwood City, one idea recently floated by rail officials as a strategy for accommodating high-speed trains through the Peninsula, would eventually be built and if plans for tree replacement would change once that is determined.

“It seems like the responsible thing to do would be to wait,” she said.

Caltrain spokesman Brent Tietjen said high-speed rail plans are part of a separate project operated by a separate agency and that officials are still studying whether passing tracks will be needed in that stretch of the corridor. He said officials may have more information on high-speed rail plans at an Oct. 24 community meeting planned at the San Carlos Library.

San Carlos resident Susie McKee said she was particularly concerned about adding high-speed rail service to the corridor given the number of projects planned nearby.

“I don’t see where it’s going to be,” she said. Because her home is just east of the San Carlos Caltrain station on Old County Road, McKee has been watching as new buildings go up as part of the San Carlos Transit Village, a mixed-use residential and commercial project approved by the San Carlos City Council in late 2013. She said she wondered how the timelines associated with Caltrain electrification, high-speed rail and the Transit Village near her home will intersect.

Paula Siegel, another San Carlos resident who lives close to the city’s Caltrain station, was also concerned about the confluence of projects near her home. She said she and her husband moved to be near the train, which they use daily, and was concerned their disturbance by these projects would be prolonged should passing tracks be incorporated into the plans at a later date.

“I feel like everything should have been coordinated together and should try to be coordinated now,” she said. “We’re great supporters of this, but it has to be done in a way that minimizes the disturbance and the cost,” she said.

Email calmod@caltrain.com or call (650) 399-9659 with specific questions about construction activities related to the Caltrain modernization project. Visit caltrain.com/pcepconstruction for more information. The community meeting about the high-speed rail and Caltrain electrification projects will be held Tuesday, Oct. 24, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the San Carlos Library, 610 Elm St.

anna@smdailyjournal.com

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