Tag: RAISE

Oakland RAISE – I-880 Freeway Green Infrastructure Retrofit and Active Transit Corridor Planning

.Reading time 8 minutes.

At the June 17, 2021 BPAC meeting, BPAC Commissioner David Ralston will announce an upcoming Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) federal planning grant opportunity to support green infrastructure and active transit connections along the I-880 corridor in East Oakland. This plan would include potential freeway lid crossings to provide equitable access for East Oaklanders to the Bay Trail and waterfront as well as co-beneficial emission reduction and carbon capture opportunities. Ralston will be seeking a letter of support from the BPAC.

Project background

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), working with regional partners such as MTC and the State DOT, is preparing a planning grant application for this year’s round of federal RAISE infrastructure funding. The RAISE program (Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity) is a federal grants program previously known as BUILD. This program provides $1 billion in federal FY 2021 discretionary grant funding for capital projects and planning projects.

The proposed planning project focuses on the heavy-diesel “goods movement” corridor of the I-880 Freeway as it passes through the severely impacted environmentally justice disadvantaged communities of greater East Oakland (Estuary to 105th Ave., an approximately 5-6-mile segment). The project will undertake planning feasibility, technical assessments, and conceptual-development designs for utilizing Caltrans (State) ROW along this corridor for the innovative installation of co-beneficial green infrastructure that can:

  • Mitigate/reduce PM, Black Carbon and other Diesel emissions (as well as noise) to adjacent communities; 
  • Sequester carbon and GHG from vehicular traffic;
  • Provide vegetative canopy to reduce urban heat island;
  • Enhance the capacity of groundwater recharge and provide flooding mitigation;
  • Enable and fill key active transit network gaps (such as connections between local neighborhoods, the East Bay Greenway and the Bay Trail);
  • Provide opportunity for green jobs works programs.

More info below.

Read More