BART West station work starts in January BART West station work starts in January (September 23, 2005)

$71.5 million project to add 1,140 parking spaces
by Jeb Bing

In a rare joint meeting, the Pleasanton and Dublin city councils Monday signed off on a tentative agreement for construction of a $71.5 million new BART station on I-580 just south of Foothill Road.

Robert Russell of the Amphelon Development Group, which has designed and will build the station, said the joint agreement will allow him to complete financing options through a public/private partnership so that station construction can start next January.

The two-story, architecturally streamlined station, to be called BART West, will utilize energy-saving Kal-Wall panels, which are translucent and allow light in during daylight hours while also sheltering waiting passengers.

Accessible to both sides of the freeway with ramps leading to the station's second level, passengers would take escalators to the ground and platform level when their train approaches.

With two parking garages that can accommodate more than 1,100 vehicles, the station is expected to ease crowded parking lots at the Dublin-Pleasanton station to the east, BART's last station in the Tri-Valley. Plans call for a five-story parking garage on the Dublin side, which is expected to handle more I-580 and I-680 traffic, and a four-story, 420 space parking garage and an office building on the Pleasanton side, which will also link to the Stoneridge Shopping Center.

The BART West station has been proposed for years, but the recession of the late 1990s curtailed private sector funding. A high-rise hotel and residential building once planned by Dublin have been scaled back. The new hotel will have up to 150 rooms and include a 210-unit apartment complex.

Commuters will walk over elevated ramps above the freeway to reach both sides of the roadway and the parking garages. On the Dublin side, Amphelon is also planning a 7,500-square-foot restaurant, part of an effort by Dublin officials to revitalize business at the east end of Dublin Boulevard.

Russell said the public/private partnership is unique in the U.S. Although up to $15 million has been pledged by the Tri-Valley Transportation Council and the Alameda County Congestion Management Agency, the bulk of the funds will come from grants, with bonds to be repaid by business and residential sales and rents. Both garages also will charge commuters parking fees, which Russell said will raise additional revenue to pay down construction debt.

Russell said projected ridership could total more than 6,000 from the BART West station, with commuters who have not been able to find parking spaces at the main Bart station now returning to the rapid transit system. His projections were buoyed Tuesday when a new survey by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority showed that 110,000 weekday riders would use BART to San Jose each day in 2030, a 33 percent increase over earlier forecasts.

If construction gets under way in January, as currently planned, the station would be completed and open to commuters in about two years.

Both city councils will meet again later this fall to review final financing arrangements.

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