Overview

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Project Partners

Project Funding

The Project is funded by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) Measure B and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Rail Crossing Elimination (RCE) grants. The City of Palo Alto, Caltrain, and VTA have entered into a Cooperative Agreement to advance the Project through PE and ENV.

Project Process/Schedule

To facilitate decision-making and expedite refinement of the alternatives, the Project is divided into two steps:

Step 1 – The Conceptual Development step will advance the current alternatives through concept refinement and 15% design. The community will have the opportunity to weigh in on the concepts during both the concept refinement and 15% design. City Council will identify which alternative per crossing to advance to Step 2.

Step 2 – The Preliminary Engineering and Environmental Documentation step will continue refinement of the Locally Preferred Alternative's (LPA's) for each crossing through 35% design and complete the environmental clearance under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).  

Approval Bodies

City of Palo Alto

1. Rail Committee: Over the past two years, the Rail Committee has played a crucial role in evaluating potential grade separation solutions, conducting detailed reviews of underpass alternatives, geotechnical assessments, traffic impact studies, noise, and vibration analyses, and Caltrain’s operational requirements. As a council committee, the Rail Committee recommends actions to City Council. 
2. The City of Palo Alto City Council (City Council) is the final decision maker for this Project. The City Council will select the preferred rail grade separation alternatives which will be confirmed by Caltrain. The City is the agency responsible for implementing the Project.