BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer
A proposal for 131 townhouses to be built between Redwood Creek and Maple Street in Redwood City will further snarl traffic in the congested area, a draft environmental impact report shows.
The project, which will overlook the creek that flows into the Bay, will add at least 814 car trips to the area daily. That will exacerbate traffic at the two intersections.
One is the Woodside Road and Broadway on-ramp to Highway 101. The intersection, as rated by traffic engineers using a system similar to school grades, already receives a failing mark of “F.”
The other is at Blomquist Street/Seaport Boulevard/East Bayshore Road. It has a grade of “C.”
The project, proposed by San Francisco based-Strada Development, will be reviewed by the city’s planning commission on Tuesday (Feb. 20).
According to the environmental report, prepared by Berkeley-based LSA Associates, the project will cause travelers to wait an additional 27 seconds in the morning at the Broadway/Woodside Road onramp to 101, furthering the congestion at the ramp, where commuters are already delayed by at least a minute and a half already.
The report says that Strada ought to pay for retiming the stoplights at the intersection and “contribute its fair share” to reconstruct the ramp. A December 2016 report from Caltrans estimates the cost to be about $142 million for planning and construction of the project. The report does not give a specifiamount that Strada ought to contribute.
Another intersection
The Blomquist Street/Seaport Boulevard/East Bayshore Road intersection that will also be impacted by the development will see about an added 10 second delay to the current average 25 second delay for commuters at the intersection, according to the environmental report.
The report recommends that Strada pay for repainting the road to add a second westbound left-turn lane on East Bayshore.
While the report focused on intersections, it is likely that the development may make it harder for people to traverse Maple Street. Strada has said as part of the project it will extend Blomquist Street, which ends at Maple, and eventually extend it across the city’s property to have more than one way out of the development.
The townhouses will be split between 21 buildings located around the 7.88-acre site. The buildings will be between 37 to 41 feet tall, according to project plans.
