Winter 2024
City staff collaborated with Caltrain and Caltrain and Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) to establish a three party Cooperative Agreement. This agreement outlines the roles and responsibilities for conducting the Preliminary Engineering and Environmental documentation and includes a $14 million funding contribution from Measure B Grade Separation funds for the Churchill Avenue, Meadow Drive, and Charleston Road crossings. The funding agreement was authorized by the three parties and fully executed.
Summer/Fall 2024
The funding agreement with the FRA for Preliminary Engineering and Environmental Phase was finalized. City staff worked with Caltrain and VTA to develop a three party Cooperative Agreement. In addition, City and Caltrain staff presented updates on the Enhanced Crossing project near the Churchill Avenue crossing to the Rail Committee.
Summer 2024
The Rail Committee continued evaluating project alternatives, focusing on the implications of aligning with Caltrain's comments and standards. City and Caltrain staff presented findings on necessary modifications to the conceptual designs, seeking input to guide the next phase of development.
The committee recommended advancing the underpass and hybrid alternatives for Charleston Road and East Meadow Drive to preliminary engineering, with an emphasis on minimizing property impacts, enhancing bike/pedestrian crossings, and improving connectivity to existing infrastructure.
For Churchill Avenue, the committee reaffirmed its commitment to the underpass alternative and designated Seale Avenue as the preferred location for a bike/ pedestrian crossing associated with this alternative.
In June, following a review of the Rail Committee's recommendations and public feedback, the City Council approved advancing these projects to the Preliminary Engineering and Environmental Phase. Council also endorsed a funding agreement between the City of Palo Alto and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) for $6million in grant funding under the Rail Crossing Elimination Program.
Spring 2024
Caltrain staff conducted their initial technical review relative to Caltrain Standards and roadway standards and provided comments to City Staff on the conceptual plan alternatives in November 2023. These comments and concerns were extensively discussed during the January Rail Committee meeting, and staff sought guidance on substantiating changes in the alternative concepts, focusing on major elements such as right-of-way encroachment, vertical alignment, horizontal alignment, and other miscellaneous items.
Subsequently, City and Caltrain staff convened to comprehend how addressing Caltrain comments and adhering to Caltrain Standards would impact the conceptual design alternatives. The objective was to understand the high-level material changes that may be required for the concepts and explore next steps.
Additionally, during the February Rail Committee meeting, staff presented the updated Summary of Evaluation Matrix. This update incorporated additional items approved by the Council into the adopted evaluation criteria, including East-West connectivity, Traffic, Pedestrian/bicycle circulation, Private Property Impacts, Environmental impacts, and Visual impacts.
Fall/Winter 2023
The City secured a $6.0 Million grant from the Federal Railroad Administration under the Railroad Crossing Elimination Program. This funding contributes to the Environmental and Preliminary Engineering phase of the grade separations at Churchill Avenue, Meadow Drive, and Charleston Road crossings.
Additionally, the City received a $23.79 Million grant from a California State Agency under the Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program. This financial support is allocated for the Final Design Phase of the Churchill Avenue Grade Crossing.
City staff is actively engaged in evaluating grade separation alternatives with the intention of updating the matrix to align with the revised City Council Adopted Criteria. The Rail Committee reviewed proposed metrics by Caltrain for prioritizing Grade Crossings and providing feedback to Caltrain.
An update on the Bicycle and Transportation Plan Update project was presented and the Rail Committee provided feedback related to crossings across the Rail Corridor.
Summer 2023
Following input from various stakeholders, including Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD), Stanford, Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee (PABAC), and community designers involved in the Underpass Alternatives, the Partial Underpass Alternative for Churchill Avenue, and Meadow Drive and Charleston Road Underpass Alternatives were revised and officially endorsed by the Rail Committee.
The City Council approved the Services Agreement between the City of Palo Alto and the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board (Caltrain) for the Connecting Palo Alto Grade Separation Project. This agreement facilitates technical input on conceptual designs.
The City Council approved the proposed updates to the Grade Separation Evaluation criteria, authorizing the Rail Committee to employ these modifications in assessing alternatives under consideration for grade separation projects.
The Rail Committee re-included the Viaduct Alternative in ongoing consideration for further study by Caltrain and City staff.
The Rail Committee also reviewed and accepted the preliminary geotechnical report prepared by the project consultant.
Spring 2023
Rail Committee reviewed and recommended Council to update the Grade Separation Evaluation Criteria. The revised criteria now include additional factors such as travel times, traffic impacts, long-term maintenance costs, sustainability, sea level rise, as well as consideration of visual and privacy changes.
Rail Committee reviewed the Services Agreement between City of Palo Alto and Peninsula Corridor Joint Power Board (Caltrain) for the Connecting Palo Alto, Grade Separation Projects and recommended it to the City Council for approval. The purpose of the Service Agreement is to engage Caltrain in early coordination, provide technical review, offer input and expertise, and contribute to the capital project development process for the selection of Preferred Alternative(s).
Fall/Winter 2022
Study Sessions were held to review comments received from various stakeholders to refine conceptual plans for Partial Underpass Alternative at Churchill Avenue and Underpass Alternatives at Meadow and Charleston Road. In addition, Staff initiated discussion with Caltrain for a service agreement to review the conceptual plans.
Summer 2022
Staff reached out to various stakeholders including (PABAC) Pedestrian and Bike Advisory Committee, PAUSD (Palo Alto Unified School District), Stanford, CSTSC (City School Transportation Safety Committee), and local design engineers as directed by Council to seek input and feedback for refining underpass alternatives.
Spring 2022
Rail committee was reinitiated at the direction of the City Council. At its first meeting in April, the Rail Committee recommended for the Consultant to perform additional studies that included a preliminary geotechnical investigation and design Refinement of the underpass alternatives. In addition, a second opinion will be sought for cost estimates of trench alternatives.
Council approved the amendment with the City’s Consultant for additional studies recommended by the Rail Committee that included preliminary geotechnical investigation, design refinement of the underpass alternatives, and a second opinion for cost estimates of trench alternatives.
Staff submitted grant applications requesting federal funding for grade separation projects at the crossings of Churchill Avenue, Meadow Drive, and Charleston Road from various programs such as INFRA 22 known statutorily as the Nationally Significant Multimodal Freight & Highway Projects, MEGA 22 known statutorily as the National Infrastructure Project Assistance program) and through Metropolitan Transportation Commission under Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL).