North-South Bikeway Gets $3 Million to Open Cal Park Hill Tunnel Linking San Farael and Larkspur Ferry Terminal

Transportation link along 101 gets $3 million

By Mark Prado, Marin Independent Journal

The re-opening of the Cal Park Hill tunnel to bicycle and pedestrian traffic got a huge boost yesterday when the California Transportation Commission approved $3 million for the project.

"This is significant and we are ecstatic," said Debbie Hubsmith, president of the Marin County Bicycle Coalition, who spoke to the commission yesterday in Sacramento. "It would link downtown San Rafael and the Larkspur Ferry Terminal."

The 1,000-foot long Cal Park Hill Tunnel, between San Rafael and Greenbrae, has been closed since the 1960s when railroads faded from the county's landscape and Highway 101 came into pre-eminence. Over the years, 10 railroad tunnels in Marin that were part of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad system were abandoned and shut down.

In that time, Highway 101 has become jammed with cars, and transportation planners are looking at ways to ease the gridlock. Bicycle advocates say the reopening of railroad tunnels will provide thoroughfares between major transit points.

Early estimates put the Cal Park Tunnel reconstruction work at between $5 million and $6 million.

The action by the commission almost guarantees the tunnel will reopen. The county already has been able to bank $1.6 for the project and has several grants in the pipeline that would deliver the needed cash to complete the project, said Marin Supervisor Steve Kinsey, who also testified at the commission meeting yesterday.

"This is the real deal," Kinsey said. "This gets us 50 percent of the money. We are almost there."

The tunnel could be re-opened and open to the public by 2005, Kinsey said.

A reopened tunnel would allow bicyclists to get from downtown San Rafael to the ferry terminal in five minutes, Hubsmith said. Bike riders now have to take a hilly, circuitous route near San Quentin State Prison that takes 20 minutes to get to the terminal from San Rafael.

While the tunnel would initially be re-opened for bike and pedestrian use, it is wide enough to accommodate other forms of transportation, such as a shuttle bus or train.

"Getting this money is a huge success for Marin," Kinsey said.

Contact Mark Prado via e-mail at mprado@marinij.com