VTA Awarded $2.9M Grant to Reuse Excavated Material

Valley Transportation Authority has been awarded a $2,982,471 grant from the State of California Wildlife Conservation Board to reuse excavated material from the BSVII Project.

Courtesy of VTA

SAN FRANCISCO – Valley Transportation Authority has been awarded a $2,982,471 grant from the State of California Wildlife Conservation Board to reuse excavated material from the BSVII Project.

Valley Transportation Authority has been awarded a $2,982,471 grant from the State of California Wildlife Conservation Board. The grant will go toward the Tidal Marsh Restoration Project and the reuse of excavated material. According to the VTA, the Beneficial Reuse Project includes transporting and depositing excavated material from the BART Silicon Valley Extension Phase II Project to the South San Francisco Bay former salt production ponds (SBSPRP). The SBSPRP covers over 6,000 hectares of former salt production ponds along the San Francisco Bay.

Crews will place the excavated soil in ponds within the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge in order to raise the subsided ponds’ bottoms to accelerate the timeline for ultimate tidal marsh restoration, according to the VTA. This will bring environmental benefits that include: 1) sea level rise resilience; 2) reduction in greenhouse gas emissions; 3) the creation of habitats for threatened and endangered species; 4) improvements in water quality; 5) managing flood risks; 6) the reuse of construction waste.

The grant will go toward the design phase of the project in order to “identify methodologies for transport and placement of the material into the ponds.” Previously, the project received a $1.5 million grant from the California State Coastal Conservatory for the environmental and permitting phases. The VTA estimates that more than 3 million cubic yards of material will be excavated from the tunnel boring for the BSVII Project, and the primary choice for the reuse of excavated materials will go toward the raising the ponds’ bottoms as opposed to being disposed of in landfills. 

The BSVII Project will have created 75,000 jobs with close to 43,000 jobs related directly to the project and seeks to “provide equitable transit for low-income communities, help alleviate traffic congestion, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” Four future stations in Santa Clara and San José will serve an average of 54,6000 riders by 2040 “with a projected 27,900 daily ridership at the Downtown San José Station alone.” Once the project is completed, almost half of the trips to and from the stations will total to an estimated 32,900 by 2040.