Lack of funds found to stall key Bay Area transportation projects

Political gridlock in Sacramento and Washington threatens to stall planned improvements to the Bay Area’s crowded and congested transportation system, according to a study released Wednesday by a national transportation research group.

Just three of the Bay Area’s 20 most-critical transportation projects are fully funded, 11 have only partial funding and six aren’t likely to get enough money to even break ground until at least 2020, the report said.

“When you look at the most critically needed projects, the ones that are going to keep the system moving and keep people safe, most of those don’t have the funds they need,” said Rocky Moretti, a spokesman for Trip, which conducted the study.

Trip, which advocates for congestion-relieving projects, released the report in downtown San Francisco across the street from the Transbay Transit Center construction site, a project struggling to find funding for its second phase: a Caltrain extension.

The extension is among the mostly unfunded, and endangered, projects listed by the group along with reconstruction of the interchanges of Interstate 680 and Highway 4 in Martinez and of Interstates 80, 680 and Highway 12 in Solano County.

[...] unfunded or underfunded are BART improvements to increase capacity and service, the widening of Highway 152 heading from Gilroy toward the Central Valley and congestion-based pricing to reduce traffic in San Francisco.

Trip, a national transportation research group that advocates for congestion-relieving projects, used data from Caltrans and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to choose the top 20 projects, then ranked each either green, yellow or red, depending on their funding.

“What makes Trip’s assessment so valuable and so timely is that the report looks at the entirety of our transportation puzzle rather than just two or three pieces of it,” said Dave Cortese, MTC chairman and Santa Clara County supervisor.

Critical projects all over the state are being shortchanged and threatened with delays because of the Legislature’s failure to find a way to fund transportation projects, said Will Kempton, executive director of Transportation California, a statewide transportation advocacy group and a former Caltrans director.

“Giving a green light to critically needed transportation projects in the San Francisco Bay Area and throughout the state is going to require increased funding from all levels of government,” Will Wilkins, Trip’s executive director, said in a statement.

Unfortunately, too many of these transportation projects are facing yellow or red lights and potential state funding cuts could slow their progress even more.

The Transbay Tube seismic retrofit for BART, Muni’s Central Subway and Transbay Transit Center construction — all well under way — are the only projects given green rankings, meaning enough money is lined up.

Maintenance of streets, roads and highways leads the top 20 list and has a yellow ranking, signifying only partial funding.

[...] ranked yellow are the rest of the top five projects on Trip’s list: region-wide improvements to the Bay Area’s largest transit systems, seismic retrofitting of the Golden Gate Bridge, construction of MTC’s planned express lane network, a BART extension to downtown San Jose and Santa Clara, and infrastructure improvements at the Port of Oakland and former Oakland Army Base.

Trip chose the top projects, the organization said, based on their potential for relieving traffic congestion, improving safety, supporting economic development and improving physical conditions.

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.

Trip, a national transportation research group, ranked the 20 most-needed Bay Area transportation projects and rated the sufficiency of their funding.

(2) Region-wide improvements to BART, Muni, Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority and AC Transit.

(12) BART Metro program to expand capacity, service on the central core of the system.

(13) Region-wide freeway ramp metering and other technological traffic management.