The Pleasanton "gap"
The city of Pleasanton initially chose not to preserve the transportation corridor within its city limits. Although the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) still controlled the right of way, multiple developments were built encompassing the corridor, most notably Hacienda Business Park.
The first work on the trail in Pleasanton began in March 2006, creating a new section about 1 mile (1.6 km) long on the south side of the city. This segment opened in March 2008.
This left a gap in the trail, approximately 1.6 miles (2.6 km) long, extending from the Dublin side of the Dublin/Pleasanton BART station to Santa Rita Road near the Stoneridge Drive intersection, where the new leg begins.
Beginning in June 2010, the EBRPD, City of Pleasanton, and landscape architects Callander Associates held public meetings to discuss options for completing the trail within the city.
In February 2011, the Pleasanton City Council voted to ratify the EBRPD master plan developed based on these meetings. $4 million in regional and federal grants have been allocated to complete this section of the trail. Numerous challenges will need to be addressed, including providing a route through the BART station itself, several at-grade crossings of busy roads, and paths through and alongside the business park, two city parks, a residential development with playgrounds on the corridor, and an apartment complex. Especially problematic is the area where the existing southern segment begins, with obstacles including an intersection of two major streets, the Arroyo Mocho Canal, and facilities belonging to the region's water district.
Read more about this topic: Iron Horse Regional Trail
Famous quotes containing the word gap:
“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink.”
—George Orwell (1903–1950)