East Boronda Road Corridor Congestion Relief Project

Project Description:

The City of Salinas selected Wallace Group to provide planning and design services for two miles of the East Boronda Road corridor. The City of Salinas is the largest city in the County of Monterey and is a growing city with much of its expected growth at its northern boundary. Boronda Road is classified as a Major Arterial roadway and serves a combination of urban residential and agricultural areas, nearby schools, and commercial retail zones. Boronda Road is currently a two-lane road with signalized intersections operating at or near unacceptable levels. The City had planned a six-lane arterial to accommodate projected growth. The Wallace Group team suggested the potential for a four-lane arterial with roundabouts as an alternative and was selected to provide planning and traffic analysis services. Our team spearheaded an Intersection Control Evaluation (ICE), which compared the performance of both a 6-lane signalized corridor and a 4-lane corridor with multi-lane roundabouts, and the roundabouts were chosen as the preferred alternative. After proving the feasibility of the concept, it was time to start planning out the details for the entire corridor and the phasing that funding would allow. The project was broken out into three phases, and the City contracted with Wallace Group to begin phase 1 final design.

The corridor design includes buffered bike lanes, transit facilities, stormwater quality treatment features, significant utility coordination and design, along with public outreach and grant writing efforts. The typical cross section will include swales in the median to treat stormwater runoff and pavement analysis to determine cost effective roadway construction. Ultimate planning will also determine potential Right of Way preservation needs that are critical to allow development to proceed on the north. Wallace Group is pleased to support the City on this multi-year safety and congestion relief project for the community of Salinas.

Project Highlights:

• Cost effective planning to reduce pavement areas
• Multimodal facilities include buffered bike lines, pedestrian and transit facilities
• Shared-use paths at roundabouts with pedestrian activated crossing treatments
• Roundabouts provide safety enhancements and traffic calming
• Stormwater facilities in medians and at roundabouts
• Utility planning and design
• Public outreach
• Widening at Gabilan Creek Crossing
• Planning, environmental clearance and permitting