Honorable Mayor and Council members of the City of Menlo Park:

I am writing this as a resident and private citizen of Menlo Park. It is intended to be a wake-up call for our entire city. Grade separations are coming. Yes, I know, there may not be enough money. Yes, we intend to "only" study them again (with the perhaps naïve and erroneous conviction that we can somehow influence their final design). Yes, even if they are built, it will be many years before that happens. This thinking, Council members, friends and neighbors, is the legend of the frog, cozy in the warm water, slowly heating up to a fatal boil.

Let's summarize what will happen once the dump-trucks start rolling:

• All four crossings -- Ravenswood, Oak Grove, Glenwood and Encinal -- will become major construction sites for three years, as will the entire 8000 ft. of the rail corridor through Menlo Park.

*Widening of the corridor, and laying four
tracks. Caltrain states they want this regardless of the high-speed train.

*Raising the track bed 15 feet throughout Menlo Park.

*Electrification and widening the rail corridor,
therefore cutting down heritage trees all along the length of the right of way through Menlo Park.

*Major loss of downtown businesses due to
construction. Other cities have already suffered through this.

*Major traffic disruptions through downtown.
Traffic will be re-routed. We can expect major gridlock throughout the three years.

*Enormous air pollution. The diesel equipment
will roll, perhaps day and night. Dirt and dust in the air and in the streets. Lots of it.

*Eminent domain adverse takings along the rail
corridor, at each of the intersections, and along the to-be-widened rail corridor.

*Temporary tracks outside of the rail corridor for Caltrain to keep operating.

*Construction easements and eminent domain along
the rail corridor will be necessary for the construction process and the temporary tracks.

*Making the rail corridor HSR ready. Caltrain
projects that the costs for six grade crossings, including Atherton with Menlo Park, will be over $1 billion. (See Caltrain Footprint Study.) The only source of such large dollar amounts will be the high-speed rail bond issue.

Consulting firms like BKF are rail development advocates. Their studies lead to revenue generation by participating in the engineering and construction process. Grade separation advocates are those who, one way or another will stand to benefit financially from this. They include developers and construction companies, promoters, brokers, realtors, consultants and, of course, the rail bureaucracy itself. It is not in their self-interest to reject conducting studies or promoting grade separations. Most of these people don't live in Menlo Park.

What are the consequences; I mean besides downtown being torn up for three years? For one thing, the creation of a barrier down the spine of Menlo Park; a Berlin Wall, 15 ft high, that separates east from west. Such massive barriers have to be seen to be believed. Their impact will be monumental.

Many people say, well, we don't want that, but we do want a trench that puts the tracks below ground. Good luck with that. Caltrain has ignored Menlo Park, even when the mayor, along with other CETS members, presented them with unanimous resolutions about schedule changes. Nor have they listened to any of our neighboring cities on the Peninsula. Why would they start listening now?

Another consequence is maintaining the Caltrain commuter schedule, for three years or more, on temporary or "shoofly" tracks. These tracks will run next to the rail corridor in construction easements and on city streets. It is now hard to imagine how intrusive this will be.

On the high speed rail website
(http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/) are drawings of the rail modifications from 5th Avenue in Redwood City to San Francisquito Creek. They intend to raise the rail bed by 4.6 meters, or 15.1 feet. They specify "retained fill" which can mean either berm, such as in San Carlos, or retaining walls. That's the divider that will ultimately separate Menlo Park into two cities. There will be adverse consequences for all Menlo Park residents, even those who live far enough away from the tracks to believe that all this will make no difference in their lives. Sorry. This will impact all of Menlo Park like a tsunami.

Let me make some predictions here. There will be yet another grade crossing study, this one costing around $250,000. initially promoted by the prior city council. It will be done by BKF, the consulting firm that did the prior
feasibility study of grade separations in 2003. At that time, they recommended the 10 ft. up/10 ft. down option. They will again present a discussion of a number of options, and will again recommend this "split" solution, raising the rail beds and lowering the crossing streets. They will give us low-ball numbers for the
construction costs. They will again play down the destructive and divisive consequences of the three years of construction. Will this study bring us closer to grade separations? No, not unless the high-speed bond issue remains on the November '08 ballot. If that happens -- and it passes -- you can kiss the Menlo Park you love good-by.

Martin Engel
15 November 2007

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Martin Engel
1621 Stone Pine Lane
Menlo Park, CA 94025
650:323-1670
martinengel@earthlink.net


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