Burlingame is prioritizing the possibilities of artificial intelligence, meeting its environmental goals and transportation and mobility amidst disappointing news for one longtime city priority — the Broadway grade separation project.
The grade separation — designated as a top priority at last year’s city goal-setting — would separate the train tracks from the road to mitigate traffic, increase public safety and allow more than one train at the Broadway station. At the beginning of 2024, project costs were estimated at $325 million.
Now, however, Caltrain recently informed the city about significant increases to project costs, raising totals to $500 to $600 million for construction alone, Public Works Director Syed Murtuza said.
“We were shocked,” he said. “We are looking at reevaluating the entire project, complete reengineering, and will be coming to the City Council very soon. We are in the final stages of looking at alternatives. … There are some tough decisions to be made.”
Pleas from the city to complete the grade separation before Caltrain electrification went unanswered, Murtuza said. Now, construction on the grade separation would need to occur when the train tracks are de-electrified, which could only occur around the hours of midnight to 4 a.m. and lengthen the project timeline significantly, Councilmember Donna Colson said.
“It’s just utterly poor management and mismanagement on the part of the organization, and we saw it directly,” she said.
She urged the city to realistically communicate with residents about the realities of the long-awaited project moving forward.
Funding for the project is also in flux, despite a $17 million commitment from the city of Burlingame and the possibility of 50% funding match from county sales tax funds. Previously-awarded state funding for the project is in limbo, Murtuza said, and pursuance of federal funding has not been successful.
The lack of progress on the federal lobbying front should incentivize Burlingame to look at changing its lobbying firm, Mayor Peter Stevenson said.
“I would strongly recommend we look at other representation in D.C.,” he said.
Transport and mobility
Councilmembers also heard more positive updates on transportation and mobility within the city, particularly regarding the vision zero plan and last mile transportation options.
Burlingame received a $480,000 grant from the Federal Highway Administration to develop a vision zero plan, designed to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries within the city. Staff has begun working with a consultant firm and will begin public engagement in 2025 with the goal of developing grant-ready projects and a safety-first culture within the city, Murtuza said.
The city will also be continuing on its work helping public transport riders through the last mile to their destinations through shuttle programs and a joint bike-sharing program with the city of Millbrae, he said.
In addition, Stevenson mentioned that a personal project of his for 2025 will be more coordination with the city of San Mateo on development of the Peninsula Avenue traffic corridor, he said.
AI and Technology
The City Council is also interested in ways that artificial intelligence can develop more efficient procedures and help its city staff in the upcoming year.
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Jeremy Kirshner, assistant to the City Manager, said that conversations with the nearby town of Los Altos could foster new uses of AI in Burlingame. Los Altos, for example, uses AI technology to write staff reports based on meetings, which are then reviewed by a human.
“These solutions exist. They’re being implemented by cities,” he said.
Other programs that use AI technology, like ChatGPT and Canva, are already being utilized in Burlingame, Kirshner said.
The city is managing a fine but exciting line in incorporating AI within tasks previously exclusively accomplished by staff members, Councilmember Michael Brownrigg said.
“I think the time when AI is both interesting but also a little scary is when it’s replacing a human’s judgment and creativity,” he said. “I can definitely see a role for AI. I would suggest we lean in. I just think we all want to be cautious when we start replacing human interaction.”
If used correctly, AI technologies could help Burlingame’s relatively small city staff focus on projects they’re passionate about and even solve some of the city’s retention issues, Councilmember Desiree Thayer said.
“I think this is a technology that can really help in the workplace … if we use it more as the tool that it is to take away monotonous tasks,” she said. “So [staff] really have time to dig into the work that takes a lot of creativity and is more inspiring for them to work on.”
AI and technology programs could also help the city continue to digitize its records and filing systems, multiple staff members said.
Sustainability and development
Burlingame is also working toward a significant reduction of carbon emissions by 2030 as part of its climate action plan, Sustainability Coordinator Sigalle Michael said.
Progress is being made on a variety of fronts, including the Caltrain electrification, the bike-sharing program, increasing electric vehicle infrastructure, an increase in residential solar projects and heat pump installation, she said.
The city’s zero-waste goals still have work to be done, Michael said. Current waste diversion rates for 2023 are at 51%, a far cry from the climate action plan goal of 90% by 2030.
Councilmembers are also prioritizing development and city infrastructure projects for the upcoming year. Both Thayer and Councilmember Andrea Pappajohn said that the Broadway Specific Plan is of particular interest to them.
Burlingame’s ongoing growth and development means the City Council also needs to prioritize open space, starting with its town square project, which is set to begin construction shortly.
“We are proud of the record this city has of building more housing, inviting more people in,” Brownrigg said. “As you become more dense, you also need to have more public open space.”
Brownrigg will also work on the acquisition of a building to be preserved as deed-restricted affordable housing, potentially for city officials and teachers, he said.
(5) comments
Folks, this sounds like another sob story and a precursor to hitting Burlingame residents for more of their hard earned money. Please note the money wasted on everything else: the vision zero plan because it’s only a pipe dream – they’ll never get to zero; outside consultants being paid for these pie-in-the-sky projects; and most importantly, the “Sustainability and development” section for more indications of how money is wasted on anything but infrastructure.
Also, wasn’t Burlingame going to be spending $6.4 million for a town square project? And didn’t Burlingame teachers recently receive a raise of more than 7% with these raises also count towards their pensions and benefits? Also, isn’t Burlingame building a new city hall? Didn’t Burlingame recently give their union workers a 15% raise? Don’t be surprised when Burlingame again reaches for your wallets.
You did uncover a real conspiracy this time:
- The UN envoy for Road Safety is the boss of FIA and Formula One (F1)
- The WHO branch for Road Safety is funded by FIA and F1
- The Institute for Local Government is funded by Ford Foundation
- The Vision Zero Network is sponsored by GM, Waymo, Uber, Lyft, Ford Foundation, etc.
Nobody wants this to go to zero, they want to pretend, so city managers can keep spending money on car-centric projects.
I give you another newsflash: San Mateo has created many "Bicycle Boulevards" now, not one has anything thing to do with bicycles. But with that name they can take bicycle funding - approved by voters - and invest it into these speed humps we like so much.
Here is what AI would tell Burlingame:
It was always clear that the grade separation for cars is unaffordable and Electrification raised the price for San Mateo by $50M (or something like that).
Redwood City is planning 6, SIX! Currently they say it's going to be $1B, but in first drafts they already said $2B - they are lucky if they manage Whipple Rd grade separation.
But thinking smaller and Last-Mile only must be a consideration. For $100M Burlingame and Redwood City could get 3-4 smaller ped/bike underpasses in various locations. And those could start sooner and not 30 years in the future.
Back to AI:
Grade Separation for cars leads to more traffic, more air pollution and higher GHG emissions.
Grade Separations for ped/bikes leads to less traffic, less air pollution and lower GHG emissions.
I would side with AI on this one.
The Broadway intersections to the freeway could be the worst are in all the Peninsula. I was living in Burlingame when they rebuilt the whole overpass - managed to have a crane tip over and destroy half the project - and then finish the project overbudget and somehow manage to make it worst than before. There is no chance they are able to detour people adequately enough to shut down the intersection to rebuild. That Broadway corridor is toast - should be avoided at all costs.
I must be living in an alternate universe. I recall the city being completely supportive of the CalTrain move towards electric operations, which means increased train traffic and making the already terrible traffic situation on Broadway that much worse. In addition, we have known for a very long time that the grade separation project would cost over $500 million, so this "announcement" seems absurd. We can bet that high-speed rail will be killed by Trump and that gravy train will stop as well. With regard to AI, I think Michael's worries are valid - AI is a tool to make citizens (in this case and it happens in business every minute) talk to robots, not people and that is a terrible idea. If it is used to aid in internal non-public facing tasks, fine - but we all better guard against employees being able to stop talking to taxpayers by sending them to endless robot interactions. This city should concentrate on not making things worse by as an example, closing off traffic lanes for a few bike riders. This city is going in the wrong direction.
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