Bay Road improvements, a priority project for Redwood City and the county, could extend beyond the original scope, potentially covering 15 lanes of improvements.
Street improvements have long been desired. Many children in District 3 and North Fair Oaks have to cross Bay Road, a fast, busy street, to go to school, and it’s often traveled by residents on foot or bicycle. When the Redwood City Council was set to approve a contract for designing the upgrades Dec. 22, Councilmember Isabella Chu, who represents the district, wanted to ensure the project improved as much as possible.
The improvement project was intended to be focused between Fifth and 15th streets and includes adding bike lanes, repaving and studying the traffic habits of the area. Chu asked for it to reach a bit further, between Second and 17th streets, to help the overall connectivity of the project.
“I think it would hugely improve the connectivity and utility,” Chu said. “It’s like a perfect beautiful gorgeous bridge that stops short before the end of the river.”
Principal Planner Malahat Owrang said extending the project is possible and would be discussed with the contractors, Kimley-Horn, before they conduct outreach and begin the design phase of the project.
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In addition to the improvement extensions, Chu said it may be time for the city to develop in-house experts on street improvements and bike lanes, rather than outsourcing consultants whose hourly rates are “extraordinarily high.”
“While I understand sometimes it doesn’t make sense to build certain kinds of expertise in house, if it is our intention to have a connected, protected bike network, it might be much more economical to bring these kinds of projects in house,” Chu said.
The cost of the project’s design phase is funded by a $750,000 federal grant and a local match of $97,171 split between the county and city. Redwood City’s share was $48,586 which are included in the fiscal year 2025-26 budget as appropriated transportation impact fees.
Now awarded the contract, Kimley-Horn will conduct outreach in the project’s area and begin design improvements.
quote: "In addition to the improvement extensions, Chu said it may be time for the city to develop in-house experts on street improvements and bike lanes, rather than outsourcing consultants whose hourly rates are “extraordinarily high.”"
Under outgoing city manager Melissa Stevenson Diaz this practice was quite common: giving extensive pay raises to staff, but still hiring expensive consultants to plan even simple things like bike lanes, bollards, or speed humps.
Palo Alto just did an audit and apparently they spent some $27M on consultants that reused and recycled old reports from other cities that didn't even fit PA and still sent bills of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Every city has trained transportation engineers and if not, of course they should never have been hired in the first place.
And you don't even need deep expertise for bike lanes. A bike lane is $5-10k per mile in paint during any "Repave and Restripe" project.
Bike lanes around here are so basic, a child with chalk could do them. And some really look like a child did them.
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quote: "In addition to the improvement extensions, Chu said it may be time for the city to develop in-house experts on street improvements and bike lanes, rather than outsourcing consultants whose hourly rates are “extraordinarily high.”"
Under outgoing city manager Melissa Stevenson Diaz this practice was quite common: giving extensive pay raises to staff, but still hiring expensive consultants to plan even simple things like bike lanes, bollards, or speed humps.
Palo Alto just did an audit and apparently they spent some $27M on consultants that reused and recycled old reports from other cities that didn't even fit PA and still sent bills of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Every city has trained transportation engineers and if not, of course they should never have been hired in the first place.
And you don't even need deep expertise for bike lanes. A bike lane is $5-10k per mile in paint during any "Repave and Restripe" project.
Bike lanes around here are so basic, a child with chalk could do them. And some really look like a child did them.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.