Online newsletter Volume 2, Number 2,  Summer 2004

The Dilemma of Vasco Road

Introduction: Originally built as a rural two-lane road and reconstructed when it was relocated in 1996, Vasco Road, in Northern California's fast-growing eastern Contra Costa and Alameda Counties, has begun a transformation into something much busier—and that change has serious implications for the safety of the people who travel on it. Currently the road carries some 22,000 vehicles a day on its more congested stretches, an increase of nearly 40% over the past eight years. Three major crashes resulting in seven fatalities occurred there in the summer of 2003, prompting a group of private citizens and local officials to explore short-term solutions for making the road safer.   

Vasco Road is illustrative of many of the unique aspects of rural roads in transition, a category of road that is among the fastest-growing in the nation, as suburban developments continue to encroach on rural areas: 

• The region that Vasco Road serves includes land that belongs in the "urban boundary rural" category defined by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA);

• Its original design means that substantive improvements are difficult and costly;

• Gains from improvements are rapidly eroded by growth in traffic;  

• Short-term measures use a combination of re-engineering the roadway and stepped-up enforcement;  

• Because county funding is not sufficient, officials have turned to the legislature to gain eligibility for limited state financing;

• Ultimately, local officials hope to convert it to a four-lane highway for acceptance by the state.

The history of Vasco Road is emblematic of how the present practice of waiting until safety has deteriorated to a certain level before implementing changes is failing to meet the needs of the rural road in transition.

Built as a two-lane county road during World War II, Vasco Road, which runs from Livermore in Alameda County north to Brentwood in Contra Costa County, was relocated in the mid-1990s to accommodate the construction of the Los Vaqueros Reservoir. When the new Vasco Road opened in 1996, it carried 16,000 vehicles per day; it now carries more than 22,000.

The high volume has taken its toll: In the summer of 2003, three crashes resulting in seven fatalities occurred there. In addition, there has been a concentration of rear-end collisions in certain sections of the roadway, an indicator of congestion problems. “A lot of people have moved to the eastern county [from the San Francisco Bay Area] to seek affordable housing,” said Federal Glover, a Contra Costa County supervisor. “The population of Contra Costa County rose 18 percent from 1990 to 2000, and 48 percent of that came from the east county area—Brentwood, Antioch.”

The road carried 16,000 vehicles per day when it re-opened in 1996; it now carries more than 22,000.  

Indeed, not only is Contra Costa County the fastest-growing county in California, Brentwood is the second-fastest-growing city in the state.

Steve Bell, a captain with the California Highway Patrol (CHP) offices in Alameda County, said that many of the roads in eastern Contra Costa and Alameda counties such as Vasco Road have outgrown their original functions. "Roads that were designed as county roads are now being used as major thoroughfares," Bell said.

To find a way to relieve the strain put on Vasco Road by eastern Contra Costa County’s growth, evidenced by the rear-end collisions and last summer’s crashes, the county hired a private firm, Nolte Associates Inc., to assess the roadway. The county was considering installing a concrete barrier down the center to prevent vehicles from crossing the double-yellow center lines. The firm found that a barrier would be impractical, because it would require major modifications to the roadway.

In a presentation made in March 2004 to the Vasco Road Safety Task Force, a group of private citizens and government officials organized after the 2003 crashes, Nolte Associates showed that the entire road would have to be widened to meet design standards for sight distance and emergency access before a concrete barrier could be installed. After consulting police, fire and public works officials, the firm determined that a workable short-term option would be to install “rumble strips,” a combination of grooves and raised bumps, along the road’s center to discourage drivers from passing other vehicles illegally. They recommended adding grooves on the road’s shoulder, as well.

The consultants also looked at improvements to increase capacity around the intersection of Vasco and Camino Diablo Roads. It has had a high concentration of rear-end collisions, due in part, according to the Nolte Associates report, to backed-up conditions at the intersection's traffic signal. An extra lane had been added in each direction to increase the capacity of the intersection and reduce congestion. This has helped to reduce the risk of rear-end collisions. The consultants recommended more improvements to the intersection, including lengthening those recently installed lanes and adding exclusive right-turn lanes.

Julie Bueren, Deputy Public Works Director for Contra Costa County and project engineer for the rumble strip improvements to Vasco Road, said that there was "a lot of public interest" in the barriers. However, given the county's current budget—a $1.5 million loan from the City of Brentwood, a sum inadequate to cover the cost of a median barrier—rumble strips seemed like the best option.

"We started with a review of the collision data from 1996 when the road opened and looked at a myriad of options, everything from simple signing to a state-standard highway," Bueren said, adding that the road had not experienced a higher rate of crashes than the statewide average for similar roadways, but that last summer's fatalities occurring in close succession drew the public's attention to the need for safety improvements.

"To put in a median barrier would involve widening the road or compromising shoulder width," Bueren said. "Then, in consultation with Caltrans [the California Department of Transportation], we found that soft barriers [such as rumble strips] have been effective in some of the state facilities where Caltrans is using them, and it's something we could do at a reasonable cost while working toward a [long-term] solution."

In the meantime, Bueren said that the strips won’t prevent those who are determined to from passing vehicles illegally, but it will give them pause.

"There was a lot of anecdotal evidence, stories of people passing. They get frustrated and pass when they're not supposed to. I think [the strips] will help deter that—if drivers are talking on their cell phones, not paying attention, or start to veer off the road. We have had a number of off-road incidences. It will help those people pay attention."

Bell agreed that the strips will help mitigate one of the road’s biggest traffic safety problems. “Our biggest concern had to do with speeding … speeding, and crossing over double lines, which is even more reckless,” Bell said. “The rumble strips will help, I believe. For the most part, engineering [improvements] are a good component of managing traffic.”

Other short-term steps should help with the speeding problem, Bell said. The CHP began aerial enforcement of speed limits on Vasco Road, and active feedback signs have been installed to tell drivers how fast they are going. In addition, drivers are now required to use their headlights during the day on Vasco Road.

"What we are seeing is fewer and fewer people crossing those double lines," Bell said. "There's an appreciable difference now. That doesn't mean every car is now complying with speed. I don't know if we'll ever reach that, but that is a goal."

Long-term, Bueren said, the county will be working to achieve the widening of Vasco Road and other actions that would bring it up to a sufficient standard for acceptance into the state highway system. A crucial step is to build consensus with Alameda County, the cities of Brentwood and Livermore, and Caltrans on an improvement strategy for the corridor, she said.

Last year, legislation was passed that re-classifies portions of the road as "inter-regional" and "inter-county," which makes it eligible to compete for some state funding. This was an important beginning, Bueren said, to achieving a highway-standard design and acceptance by the state.

But evidenced by what has happened to neighboring Highway 4, obtaining "highway" status is no guarantee that there will be sufficient funding for all the necessary safety improvements. Highway 4, which ties into I-80 in Hercules on the west and extends south and east past Stockton, passing Pittsburg, Antioch, Oakley and Brentwood along the way, has also experienced major growth pains in recent years. Although its congestion problems and collision rates have generated less attention than those of Vasco Road, residents of the eastern Contra Costa County cities and towns that it serves have expressed concern that the road doesn't have the capacity to handle the traffic generated by new developments proposed for the area. In fact, according to Susan Miller, Engineering Manager for the Contra Costa Transportation Authority, backups on portions of Highway 4 that stretch from Oakley and Brentwood to I-5 have prompted many eastern Contra Costa County residents to travel Vasco Road instead, exacerbating Vasco Road's congestion problems.

"You have a roadway that in some areas has not been improved in 50 years," Miller said. "One of our priorities was to widen Highway 4 to serve the growing population. There is a huge amount of growth, and people are frustrated. [But] projects are expensive and it takes a long time to get environmental clearance."

Most of the towns along Highway 4 were still relatively rural when the road was built in the late 1950s and early 1960s, but the towns along the northwesterly stretch of Highway 4 turned suburban fairly quickly, and today even towns in eastern Contra Costa County have become bedroom communities for people working in San Francisco and the East Bay. A widening project which expanded sections of the road from two to four lanes began on the road in 1988, but because it encompassed multiple projects, each requiring its own environmental review process, construction proceeded slowly, one section at a time.  

Thus, in addition to experiencing many transformations throughout the years, Highway 4 currently comprises several very distinct segments. These segments range from the four-lane freeway portions that stretch from Hercules to Martinez, newer, widened 8-lane sections from Concord to Pittsburg, the narrower freeway portions in Antioch—a segment that has experienced heavy congestion in recent years—and the still narrower portions that extend from just past Antioch south to Stockton, an area that until the last decade or so had remained very rural. Despite the widening projects underway on several sections of the road, residents of fast-growing towns served by the highway, particularly Antioch, have expressed concern that officials are not doing enough to make the highway safer and less frustrating for commuters.

As Contra Costa County grows, officials are looking to public transit to help alleviate some of the strain on Highway 4. A Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) line now extends to the Pittsburg/Bay Point area, and plans to build an eBART line (a less costly "light-rail" version of BART) to serve Antioch and extend past Oakley and Brentwood to Byron are in the works, according to Miller. The project will be funded with money that comes in from the Bay Area-wide hike in bridge tolls that took effect this year, officials hope.