Fed funding halted for Half Moon Bay Main Street Bridge 

The funding was a $1.29 million of mostly federal funding through Caltrans to address seismic retrofit of the bridge approved in 2018. However, Caltrans later adopted new bridge barrier standards that meant the city had to modify the initial rehabilitation design, including replacing the existing barriers, widening of the sidewalks to accommodate the new barriers, removal of the pilasters and providing additional weight support. The standards are called the Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware criteria. This modification led the city to believe it was no longer consistent with Measure F, known as the Main Street Preservation Act, as the project was considered a bridge replacement project, not rehabilitation. It also negatively affects its historical integrity, according to a staff report.

“Unfortunately, it turned out to be infeasible as a rehabilitation project with respect to the federal dollars Caltrans state requirements,” Maz Bozorginia, the Interim Public Works director and engineer with the city, said.

The city also saw higher anticipated costs of at least 30% higher than in 2018 because of the standard changes. Caltrans told the city in May that further grant funding would be limited to demolishing the bridge. The problems led the City Council to approve a no-build option for the Main Street Bridge Rehabilitation project at a Dec. 6 meeting. The city will now look at other means of rehabilitation without the requirements of the Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware. The city will now focus on smaller improvements around pedestrian walkways and accessibility and look to reestablish what the project will look like moving forward, Bozorginia said. The city will now reassess and discuss plans for short- and long-term improvements. Analysis for long-term improvements will likely take a few months.

At a previous March meeting, the City Council directed staff to suspend all work on the bridge project due to potential adverse impacts on the historic bridge, project delays and increased costs. The city has yet to show any interest in calling an election to approve the project, as the city would need to reimburse the county for holding the election.