In eminent domain actions, the judgment will be the price paid for the property, and may include court costs that are regarded as a roughly calculable expense of property acquisition. Costs of acquisition in this case are funded by Federal Highway Bridge Program Funds (88.53%) and Local Road Funds (11.47%). (DCD-CP No. 15-41)
A. Proposed Project
Contra Costa County Public Works Department is proposing to proceed with the Marsh Creek Drive Bridges Project (“Project”) to replace two bridges on Marsh Creek Road, approximately 4 miles apart from each other, located between the Clayton and Brentwood areas. County Bridge No. 28c-0143 (Bridge 143) is located near the Clayton Palms Mobile Home park, and County Bridge No. 28c-0145 (Bridge 145) is located near the Camino Diablo “Y” and Marsh Creek Reservoir. Both bridges are at the end of their service life and require replacement to bring them to current standards.
The Project is federally funded and administered by the State of California, Department of Transportation (“Caltrans”) through the Federal Highway Bridge Program (HBP). The HBP will fund 88.5% of the Project costs; the remaining 11.5% of Project costs will be paid from County Road Funds.
The bridge structures will be single-span concrete bridges with spans of approximately 80 feet in length over Marsh Creek. Each Project site will require significant road reconstruction, from 600 feet to 1000 feet on each roadway approach on each side of each bridge structure. This road reconstruction work is necessary to reconnect the realigned bridges to the existing roadway. Project-related work will include drainage, creek work, and the relocation of a Contra Costa Water District-owned waterline.
On August 4, 2020, this Board approved the Project and adopted the Mitigated Negative Declaration and Mitigation and Monitoring and Reporting Program for this Project. The Notice of Determination was filed by the County Clerk Recorders Office on August 14, 2020 and posted at the State Clearinghouse on September 2, 2020 all in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act. SCH No.: 2020040312/DCD-CP #15-41. On November 26, 2019, Caltrans approved a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Categorical Exclusion pursuant to Chapter 3 of Title 23, United States Code, Section 326. Caltrans determined that this Project has no significant impacts on the environment, as defined by NEPA, and that there are no unusual circumstances as described in 23 CFR 771.117(b).
In order to proceed with the Project, it is necessary for the County to exercise its power of eminent domain. Pursuant to Section 1245.235 of the Code of Civil Procedure, notice was given to all persons listed on the attached Exhibit “A” whose names and addresses appear on the last equalized County Assessment Roll. This notice consisted of sending by first-class and certified mail on March 29, 2021, a Notice of Intention that notified these owners that a hearing is scheduled for April 27, 2021, at 9:30 a.m. in the Board's Chambers, 1025 Escobar Street, Martinez, California, at which time they may appear to be heard on the matters referred to in the notice.
B. Scope of Hearing Per C.C.P. Section 1245.235
1. Public interest and necessity require the proposed Project.
The Project includes replacing two existing bridge structures that were constructed in the 1930s. The bridges are located along Marsh Creek Road in Contra Costa County, southeast of Clayton. The two bridges – Bridge 143 and Bridge 145 (“Bridges,” and each a “Bridge”) – exhibit significant signs of deterioration and are considered functionally obsolete and structurally deficient. The structures are in need of safety improvements due to their existing narrow shoulder widths, high average daily traffic count totals, and nonstandard barriers. The Bridges have been assigned low sufficiency ratings and therefore are eligible to be replaced through the federal HBP. Caltrans District 4 Local Assistance, which has been delegated the responsibility of managing the federal HBP in California, has formally agreed that replacing each Bridge is the most cost-effective solution to remediate these various deficiencies.
The Project will replace each Bridge with a new Bridge structure that will accommodate two 12-foot vehicle travel lanes (one in each direction of travel), two 8-foot-wide shoulders (one in each direction of travel), and Caltrans-approved concrete barriers, for a total Bridge width of approximately 43 feet for each Bridge. The new Bridges will be precast, pre-stressed concrete girder, single-span structures supported on reinforced concrete seat type abutments. The span length for each Bridge will be 80 feet over Marsh Creek, which is approximately 20 to 40 feet longer than the existing spans.
2. The Project is planned and located in the manner that will be most compatible with the greatest public good and the least private injury.
In order to ensure the Project was designed to be feasible, effective, and appropriate for the Project sites, an alternatives analysis was performed for each site. During the Project development process, multiple alignment alternatives were evaluated for the Bridge replacement at each site. The alternatives ranged from reconstructing each replacement Bridge using the existing Bridge alignments, to realignments in close proximity to the existing Bridges. The option that best balanced all of the design criteria including cost, impacts to surrounding facilities, avoiding and reducing impacts to private properties, reducing impacts to traffic during construction, design speed, and safety, was a Project design that realigned the roadway approaches and each Bridge allowing for single stage Bridge construction slightly to the east of the current alignment of Bridge 143, and slightly to the north of the current alignment of Bridge 145.
The Project will utilize single stage construction for the Bridge work and staged construction for the roadway approach work to maintain two lanes of vehicular traffic (one in each direction of travel) throughout Project construction. To accommodate the single stage Bridge construction, and in order to improve the roadway alignment at the Bridges, there will be approximately 700 to 1,000 linear feet of roadway approach reconstruction work at each end of Bridge 143, and approximately 600 to 800 linear feet of roadway approach reconstruction at each end of Bridge 145.
3. The properties sought to be acquired are necessary for the Project,
The property interests sought for this Project are described in the resolution of necessity and its Appendix A. These property interests are necessary for the replacement of the Bridges, reconstruction of the approach roadways to each new Bridge structure, relocation of utilities, and other Project-related activities, based on Project design and planning. All efforts have been made to reduce physical and operational impacts to adjacent properties both during and after Project construction. The Project cannot be constructed as planned without the acquisition of these property interests.
4. The offers of compensation required by Section 7267.2 of the Government Code have been made to the owners of record.
The County, through the Real Estate Division of the Public Works Department, has made an offer of just compensation to the owner of record for the properties and property rights and interests required for this project. The offer was based on an appraisal of the fair market value of the property rights being acquired. In this case, efforts were made to acquire each required property or property right or interest through negotiated purchase and sale instead of condemnation. Attempts to negotiate a settlement involved the County making phone calls, leaving voicemail messages and sending emails to negotiate a settlement. The County also made visits to the best-known addresses of some of the property owners. However, negotiations were not successful, requiring the County to proceed with the adoption of this Resolution of Necessity.
The County will be unable to acquire the property rights necessary for the project.