Capital Southeast Connector


Status updates, February 2009:
  • The project and its associated Joint Powers Authority have been renamed to the Capital Southeast Connector, its offices have moved to a new location on Mather Blvd., and its web site has a new address. See http://www.connectorjpa.net/ for JPA information.
     
  • The Citizens Alliance submitted two letters to the JPA in January, with concurrence by the Bass Lake Action Committee and the Four Seasons Civic League. These letters are available for viewing on the Citizens Alliance web site:
     
    --  Letter 1:  Concerns of the EDH Citizens Alliance and others
    --  Letter 2:  A sample illustrating principles for dispersion/collection of Connector traffic
     
  • Representatives of the same three civic organizations have been been in touch with JPA Executive Director Tom Zlotkowski In response to the Citizens Alliance's letters Michelle McCormick, Executive Vice President of CirclePoint in its Sacramento Office, met with us in El Dorado Hills.  The Connector JPA is retaining CicrlePoint to conduct public outreach.
Recent interaction with the JPA through Executive Director Zlotkowski and Circlepoint EVP McCormick have been positive responses to Citizens Alliance concerns. The next steps needed are for appropriate engagement by the Connector Board of Directors, the Folsom City Council, the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors, and possibly the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors.


Position paper paper #07-04 of the El Dorado Hills Citizens Alliance
Approved by Citizens Alliance board of directors 2/10/2007
Text updated 9/17/2007

Summary

The proposed Elk Grove/Rancho Cordova/El Dorado Connector will be benefical to both El Dorado Hills and El Dorado County as a whole as an important link in the Sacramento Area network of regional roads and highways. The route planned initially by SACOG brings this value at a cost to El Dorado Hills, by routing all Connector traffic from the rest of El Dorado County through an area that already is becoming the focus of our maximum traffic loads.

Connector planning needs to be modified from the SACOG plan into a new plan to be created by the Connector JPA (Join Powers Authority). Our need is to distribute traffic through multiple feeders at the Connector's eastern terminus. At least one of these feeders should be a bypass, serving points east of EDH without routing that traffic through EDH's central surface streets.

This is the area centered on the intersection of White Rock Road and Latrobe Road. Important EDH-specific factors affecting the same part of our road network are buildout of the Business Park and of high density residential areas south of US 50. Traffic generated within EDH alone in this area will be on the order of several tens of thousands of round trips daily within one to two decades. Connector through traffic to and from the rest of El Dorado County could also be substantial as population of the area east of El Dorado Hills grows into the range of 150,000 to 200,000.


Need

It is important to recognize the long term results of Connector routing and to anticipate what this will mean in decades well past the usual planning horizons of 10, 20, or 30 years. As the Sacramento region develops use of the Connected between existing centers of population, commerce, and jobs will increase. More importantly, the Connecter will form a transportation backbone that will induce additional development to cluster along its course. In the second half of the 21st Century the Connector will need to carry a very much higher traffic load than it will experience within the next 20 to 30 years. Initial planning should anticipate the need to increase traffic capacity and ultimately to build a new freeway on Connector right of way.

The Connector can become an asset to our regional road network. If planned carefully in conjunction with new arterials and major collectors in the El Dorado Hills traffic network the Connector it can divert traffic away from the parts of the EDH road network that will be at greatest risk of traffic congestion. If planned without consideration of the EDH road network it can worsen our future congestion problems.

Integrated planning of the Connector and the EDH road network is critical to managing our future traffic burden.


Some possible alternatives and variations

Planning for the El Dorado Hills terminus is critical. The route planned by SACOG is appropriate, but its traffic level needs relief by distributing the Connector's eastern terminus among different routes. There are several possible ways to terminate the Connector in El Dorado Hills. Many of these can be used together, they need not necessarily be mutually exclusive alternatives.