The State Route 156 West Corridor Project and related improvements have been developed through a variety of planning efforts, conducted over the twenty years at both the local and state levels. Below is a list of the key corridor-level and regional documents produced (or in production) related to the corridor that were used to develop this hybrid corridor plan:
- State Route 156 Certified Environmental Document
- Level 2 Tolling Traffic and Revenue Study
- Regional Transportation Plan
- Transportation Safety and Investment Plan
- Metropolitan Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy
- Central Coast California Freight Strategy Report
- Monterey County Active Transportation Plan
- Regional Conservation Investment Strategy
- Monterey County General Plan
In addition to corridor and regional planning documents, the hybrid plan also accounts for the California Transportation Plan, Interregional Transportation Strategic Plan, California Smart Mobility Framework, California Freight Plans, California Climate Change Scoping Plan and the California State Rail Plan.
Plan Contents:
The plan provides an overview of the history of the State Route 156 Corridor before engaging in the various related plan contents, and the corridor's relationship to state, regional and local plans. The plan provides an overview of the corridor's context by acknowledging its regional significance, demographic and community conditions, existing transportation conditions and existing safety conditions. The plan defines the project's purpose and need, building from the environmental document. Importantly, the State Route 156 Multimodal Corridor Plan provides a thorough review of the stakeholder and community outreach involved in developing the various plans integrated throughout the document. The report concludes with a chapter on the strategy of a suite of multimodal improvements along the corridor, including the State Route 156 - Castroville Boulevard interchange.
Public Outreach:
This State Route 156 Corridor plan includes a comprehensive overview of the outreach and stakeholder engagement involved in developing each of the corridor-level and regional planning documents that contributed to the development of the suite of projects in the corridor. There is a significant history of public involvement in each of the many aspects of the State Route 156 West Corridor Project: from the establishment of the Community Advisory Group in 2007 (which provided input during the environmental review process from a range of local perspectives), to the extensive set of meetings held to create the Level 2 Tolling Study and accompanying Guidelines, to public involvement in the development of the 2018 Monterey County Active Transportation Plan, to members of the Measure X stakeholder group including the Highway 156 – Castroville Boulevard improvements the Transportation Safety and Investment Plan’s regional priorities.
Corridor Improvements:
The strategy for corridor improvements combines biking, walking and transit connections with a safer highway and enhanced local access. Reconstructing the interchange at Castroville Boulevard and State Route 156 will remove a traffic signal on this fast-moving highway, and create a new grade-separated interchange, with roundabouts at the approach roads. Construction of a new 4-lane alignment south of Route 156 and converting the existing road into a frontage road with bike lanes will accommodate increased volumes of truck traffic and visitors, while providing safer, multimodal access to the Oak Hills community. Construction of a new interchange at US 101 will separate local, interregional and regional traffic to allow smoother and safer traffic movements. Extension of Blackie Road to connect with Route 156 will reroute agricultural trucks around downtown Castroville and will provide access to the Planned Castroville Rail Station. Future rail service to the Castroville Station will connect passengers to the planned SURF Bus Rapid Transit service that will go to the Monterey Peninsula. New walking and bicycling infrastructure will create shorter bicycle and pedestrian crossings and slow traffic at new roundabouts, improving connections from the Castroville Bridge to low-income housing and the high school. This suite of corridor improvements will help meet the safety, congestion relief, accessibility and multimodal goals discussed throughout this corridor plan.
Next Steps:
Once the Plan has been adopted by the TAMC Board of Directors, staff will prepare a grant application for the Solutions for Congested Corridor Program to fund the State Route 156 Castroville Boulevard Interchange.