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photo by Ann Becker
Don't Close Bon Air Bridge! Attend Larkspur City Council mtg Weds 3/1 or send email
400 Magnolia Avenue
Larkspur, California
6:30 PM PT - 10:00 PM PT
The City of Larkspur is considering the possible two-year closure of the Bon Air Bridge. The Bridge links Magnolia Avenue with Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and provides access to Marin General Hospital for residents of Larkspur, Corte Madera, and Kentfield.
Larkspur resident Tamsen McCracken asked me to post the following urgent message:
Please attend the Larkspur City Council meeting Wednesday March 1 at 6:30pm at Larkspur City Hall, 400 Magnolia Avenue to make your concerns known. If you cannot attend, please send an e-mail to the Larkspur City Council to their e-mail addresses listed below.
The City of Larkspur has been planning the necessary replacement of the Bon Air Bridge for a decade now. The planned replacement would coincide, unfortunately, with the continuing construction on and adjacent to Bon Air Road for the expansion of Marin General Hospital, and the proposed reconstruction of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard between Ross and Highway 101.
The latest setback is that the original engineers' estimate for the bridge replacement was $15,650,000 and when the City finally put the project out to bid last fall, the lowest bid came back at $26,832,000. An $11 million cost overrun. The original plans included keeping the bridge open to traffic (with only a few planned weekend closures) bikes and pedestrians during construction.
The City staff is proposing that they allow for the closure of the Bon Air Bridge to all vehicles (keeping access for bikes and pedestrians) during the anticipated two year construction process in order to save an estimated $5 million, still leaving a $6 million shortfall and simultaneously creating a traffic nightmare for students and commuters, hindering access to Marin General Hospital for residents, ambulances and doctors’ offices, and severely impacting many businesses along Magnolia, including Corbetts'. Many, however, are pushing the City to look at scaling back the proposed new bridge in order to save construction dollars.
The new bridge is planned to include two 10’ wide “multi-use” paths (one each direction) and two 7’ wide bike paths (one each direction) in addition to one vehicle lane each direction. It would involve increasing the width of the bridge from its existing width, by an additional 18’.
Many feel that 34’ of bike and multi-use paths is excessive width and has caused additional required mitigation measures and environmental protection requirements that also increase the cost of the bridge project dramatically. Re-designing the bridge should be the first effort at bringing the costs within budget and avoiding a prolonged closure.
Because of vehicle detours, clearly this will impact many in Marin including those from Kentfield, Ross, San Anselmo, Corte Madera and Greenbrae, not just those from Larkspur.
Please attend the March 1 meeting, or, if you cannot attend, please send an email immediately to the Larkspur City Council urging them:
1) Don't close the bridge to vehicular traffic;
2) Scale back the bridge design to fit your budget.
Mayor Kevin Haroff, kharoff@cityoflarkspur.org
Vice-Mayor Dan Hillmer, dhillmer@cityoflarkspur.org
Ann Morrison, amorrison@cityoflarkspur.org
Catherine Way, cway@cityoflarkspur.org
Larry Chu lchu@cityoflarkspur.org
You can read the Larkspur City Council’s agenda staff report at http://wordpress.us14.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=2813e70fa8e94703eb32d9e5c&id=a07e330a16&e=0186b72c00