Willow Glen Resident
News
$5 billion BART extension will include underground tunnels
By Eli Segall
Plans to extend BART to San Jose are still planned, and a portion of that service will go underground.
The underground train is set to travel through the Rose Garden neighborhood from Diridon/Arena station through a tunnel that will run 50 to 70 feet under homes and businesses on Bush and Sunol streets and Wilson and Cleaves avenues before crossing The Alameda, where it will continue just south of Plant 51, a cannery-turned-housing-development under construction between the Diridon light rail station and Cahill Park.
After crossing The Alameda, the BART tunnel will split through Rhodes Court and N. Morrison, cross under Cinnabar Avenue and then head north under the roadway along Stockton Avenue. At University Avenue, BART will run underneath the CalTrain tracks, then emerge aboveground at Newhall Street, just north of Interstate 880.
Construction of the tunnel will make significant noise, but neither the digging nor the trains themselves will create any vibrations for nearby homes and businesses, according to VTA spokeswoman Brandi Hall said. Construction crews anticipate moving at a pace of 50 feet per day.
The Diridon/Arena station, one of four planned for the San Jose $5 billon extension, will be located underground. It will cut horizontally from Cahill to Autumn streets and sit halfway between Santa Clara and San Fernando streets.
Parking is still unclear. VTA has not committed to building a parking lot for the Diridon station. The existing lot used by VTA lightrail and bus users and Caltrain and Amtrak passengers is already filled to capacity Monday through Friday.
To make room for BART users, VTA is exploring one of two options: build a 1,300-space garage across the street in the parking lot of HP Pavilion Arena, or add 800 spaces to the proposed 1,700-space garage at the Santa Clara University BART station, which is also part of the extension.
VTA officials are encouraging the other 500 would-be BART customers to bike, walk or ride the bus to Diridon.
"Those who don't live within walking distance to Diridon would have to drive," said resident Richard Tretten. "Everyone expects there to be a parking lot. If there's not, that would be the big flaw in this whole thing."
The 16-mile extension from Fremont calls for seven new stations in Milpitas, Santa Clara and San Jose. San Jose stations will be located in Berryessa, Alum Rock, downtown and Diridon. Of those, only Berryessa will be above ground.
Construction is scheduled to start in 2008 and be completed by 2016.
The final hurdles to approval include a VTA board hearing this June, and a federal transportation hearing in December 2008. VTA also needs $750 million of federal funding, equal to 16 percent of the budget. Local taxes and a 2000 county bond measure will fund almost 70 percent of the project. The state will supply the rest.
To learn more about the BART extension, call VTA's community hotline at 408.321.7575 or visit svrtc-vta.org.
