Why is CA 4 in Brentwood so underdesigned?

[thsftw]

I guess it probably comes down to Bay Area politics, but it's so weird that the freeway doesn't even extend to Vasco road, and that it goes down to a super 2 with multiple exits remaining. It seems like they can possibly widen it later, but why take the effort and not do it from the start? It'll be interesting when Mountain House is fully built up and a traffic disaster and they have to attempt to fix this problem they could have prevented...

[bing101]

Yes  but at the same time there is an environmental review on CA-4 in how it affects the San Joaquin Delta.


https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=33699.msg2868700#new
I mentioned similar stuff on the Flannery Associates one where they are talking about forming a New City in Solano County, CA and we mentioned similar stuff how it needs federal and state review in both Congress and courts before that is approved.  But in the Flannery, CA case it's both Bay Area and Sacramento politics that's at play here. For the CA-4 one specifically how much of this involves Bart since there's one on the median. Also how much of this is that Vasco Road is part of the CA-84 gap.

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=32318.0

[DTComposer]

I guess it probably comes down to Bay Area politics, but it's so weird that the freeway doesn't even extend to Vasco road, and that it goes down to a super 2 with multiple exits remaining. It seems like they can possibly widen it later, but why take the effort and not do it from the start? It'll be interesting when Mountain House is fully built up and a traffic disaster and they have to attempt to fix this problem they could have prevented...

I haven't been to that part of town in a while, but it seems to me like they did it just like many other projects around the country - build it to a standard that reflects the need and funding at the time, but set it up for (relatively) easy expansion in the future. In this case, it's been built so that the second carriageway can be added with little to no disruption to current traffic.

It should be noted that there's only one exit on the super-2 section (Balfour Road), and I would guess there's less of a potential for bottleneck in a 4-lane freeway->super 2->2-lane undivided transition than there might be in 4-lane freeway->2-lane undivided.

Also, I don't know that Mountain House would have that much effect on this section - it's being built as an exurb to the major Bay Area employment centers (San Francisco, San Jose, Silicon Valley, Tri-Valley, Oakland) - much the way Tracy and Lathrop are now. It would be awkward to use CA-4 to reach any of those centers - I would worry much more about Mountain House's impact on I-580/Altamont Pass.

[thsftw]

I guess it probably comes down to Bay Area politics, but it's so weird that the freeway doesn't even extend to Vasco road, and that it goes down to a super 2 with multiple exits remaining. It seems like they can possibly widen it later, but why take the effort and not do it from the start? It'll be interesting when Mountain House is fully built up and a traffic disaster and they have to attempt to fix this problem they could have prevented...

I haven't been to that part of town in a while, but it seems to me like they did it just like many other projects around the country - build it to a standard that reflects the need and funding at the time, but set it up for (relatively) easy expansion in the future. In this case, it's been built so that the second carriageway can be added with little to no disruption to current traffic.

It should be noted that there's only one exit on the super-2 section (Balfour Road), and I would guess there's less of a potential for bottleneck in a 4-lane freeway->super 2->2-lane undivided transition than there might be in 4-lane freeway->2-lane undivided.

Also, I don't know that Mountain House would have that much effect on this section - it's being built as an exurb to the major Bay Area employment centers (San Francisco, San Jose, Silicon Valley, Tri-Valley, Oakland) - much the way Tracy and Lathrop are now. It would be awkward to use CA-4 to reach any of those centers - I would worry much more about Mountain House's impact on I-580/Altamont Pass.

It seems like linking Vasco to Mountain House just south of Brentwood would make the most sense, and connecting to 580/205 (if that ever happened). I know there's been demand and ideas floating around about that connection but Vasco would require way too many upgrades to become a full freeway.

[jdbx]

I guess it probably comes down to Bay Area politics, but it's so weird that the freeway doesn't even extend to Vasco road, and that it goes down to a super 2 with multiple exits remaining. It seems like they can possibly widen it later, but why take the effort and not do it from the start? It'll be interesting when Mountain House is fully built up and a traffic disaster and they have to attempt to fix this problem they could have prevented...

I haven't been to that part of town in a while, but it seems to me like they did it just like many other projects around the country - build it to a standard that reflects the need and funding at the time, but set it up for (relatively) easy expansion in the future. In this case, it's been built so that the second carriageway can be added with little to no disruption to current traffic.

It should be noted that there's only one exit on the super-2 section (Balfour Road), and I would guess there's less of a potential for bottleneck in a 4-lane freeway->super 2->2-lane undivided transition than there might be in 4-lane freeway->2-lane undivided.

Also, I don't know that Mountain House would have that much effect on this section - it's being built as an exurb to the major Bay Area employment centers (San Francisco, San Jose, Silicon Valley, Tri-Valley, Oakland) - much the way Tracy and Lathrop are now. It would be awkward to use CA-4 to reach any of those centers - I would worry much more about Mountain House's impact on I-580/Altamont Pass.

It seems like linking Vasco to Mountain House just south of Brentwood would make the most sense, and connecting to 580/205 (if that ever happened). I know there's been demand and ideas floating around about that connection but Vasco would require way too many upgrades to become a full freeway.

Ask and you shall receive (eventually):  https://sr239project.net/

[bing101]

https://www.aaroads.com/guides/ca-239/


https://www.cahighways.org/ROUTE239.html


Here is more on the proposed CA-239.