Open House on I-80 Congestion in Contra Costa, Alameda Counties

If you want to know what's being planned to reduce the heavy traffic jams on Interstate 80 in Contra Costa and Alameda counties, local agencies will tell you at an "open house" meeting Monday night in Richmond.

The meeting from 6-9 p.m. at the Richmond Memorial Auditorium will focus on plans to improve traffic on the freeway between the maze (the interchange of I-80/580/880 in Oakland) and the Carquinez Bridge.

The meeting announcement (attached to this article) says improvements include "adaptive ramp metering; high occupancy vehicle (HOV) bypass lanes at ramp meters; active management of traffic during freeway incidents using variable advisory speed limits and lane management on the freeway and coordinated traffic signal timing on the local streets; bus priority at traffic signals and ramp meters; enhanced traveler information; and the coordinated operation of all the components."

The changes are part of the $93-million l-80 lntegrated Corridor Mobility (lCM) project.

It represents a cooperative effort involving 10 local governments and several agencies concerned with transportation:

• California Department of Transportation (Caltrans)
• Albany
• Berkeley
• El Cerrito
• Emeryville
• Hercules
• Oakland
• Pinole
• Richmond
• San Pablo
• Contra Costa County (representing the unincorporated areas)
• AC Transit
• WestCAT
• Alameda County Transpodation Commission
• Contra Costa Transportation Authority
• West Contra Costa Transportation Advisory Committee
• Metropolitan Transportation Commission

The Richmond Memorial Auditorium and Convention Center is located at 403 Civic Center Plaza in Richmond.