SUBJECT:

CONSTRUCTION ALERT – SANDAG Mid-Coast Corridor Light Rail Transit (LRT) Project

Project Description/Location:

The San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), in partnership with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), is proposing a project which will extend the San Diego Blue Line Trolley from the Santa Fe Depot northerly up to and across UC San Diego to a terminus station at the UTC Transit Center. The project, called the Mid-Coast Corridor Light Rail Transit Project, or LRT, envisions two stations at UC San Diego (one at Pepper Canyon and one near Preuss School/Thornton Hospital and Scripps Hospital). This trolley expansion would include a total of 9 new stations including one near the VA Medical Center. The San Diego Blue Line Trolley is expected to be operational late 2021. The campus community, through workgroups, public meetings, and interested faculty, staff and students, has worked closely with SANDAG since 2010 on this new alternative transportation mode that continues to demonstrate UC San Diego’s desire and support for greater sustainability and an improved environment.

As part of the LRT planning and project development, SANDAG will have consultants/contractors performing field investigative work in certain areas of the campus. Utility potholing work and geotechnical boreholes will begin on October 5, 2015 and should be finished by October 30, 2015. The primary hours of work will be between 7 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.; however, earlier start times or later ending times may occur depending on location. Some weekend work may occur.

The work will entail crews conducting a process called geotechnical borings. This activity occurs early in project development to verify locations of existing underground utilities and physical properties of the soils which could affect elements of the engineering. Following the data gathering process, all holes will be backfilled and restored to existing conditions. Where work will be conducted in a street, approved traffic control will be utilized. Where work will occur behind a curb, or within a sidewalk area, pedestrian access may be affected temporarily and measures will be taken to provide advance warning. In addition to the “utility potholing” and geotechnical borings work, survey crews will be on site to document existing conditions.

Traffic, Bike Lane and Pedestrian Impacts:

Traffic control measures will be in place for locations where the work will occur in a street, but no total closure of any street will occur, and one lane will remain open in each direction at all times.

Bike lanes could be temporarily impacted by traffic control for the work within a street. The duration for such an impact will be brief – typically one to two days.

Pedestrians may be directed to adjacent walkways if work requires such a routing change. Areas impacted by the work will not be simultaneous and each location will be interrupted for a short duration – one to two days.

Please view the area map at:

http://rmp-public.ucsd.edu/fdc/Alerts/LRT_Borings_ConstAlertMap_09172015.pdf
This map is best viewed using Internet Explorer.

Project information: http://www.sandag.org/midcoast

SANDAG Engineering Lead: John Dorow, (619) 699-6948 or john.dorow@sandag.org

Geotechnical Borings: Kevin Crennen, Kleinfelder, (858) 320-2209 or KCrennan@kleinfelder.com

If you have any questions please contact Project Manager Greg Coghill at gcoghill@ucsd.edu or (858) 822-6843 or Project Specialist Mary Alice Lorio at mlorio@ucsd.edu or (858) 534-2981.

We greatly appreciate your patience during these construction activities.

Wm. Joel King, AIA Assistant Vice Chancellor Campus Architect