The Humboldt Bay Harbor Recreation and Conservation District (Harbor District) retained LACO to prepare a transportation access plan to identify and prioritize transportation improvements to improve access to Humboldt Bay port facilities and industrial properties along the Samoa Peninsula near Eureka, California.
Our civil engineering, planning, and environmental teams performed environmental and physical assessments of several potential roadway alignments that included biological, geologic, hydraulic, and historical and cultural resource surveys. Following stakeholder meetings with property owners, developers, and government and resource agencies, we assessed project opportunities and constraints such as utilities, biological resources, railroad access, traffic impacts, and regulatory jurisdictions. Our team prepared a comprehensive document that contained a preliminary design of the preferred alternative route, detailed cost estimates for improving the various road segments, and prioritized recommendations to allow the Harbor District to implement the transportation access improvement plan.
LACO’s team of inter-disciplinary professionals was able to quickly identify constraints associated with preliminary alternatives and focus the analysis on the most beneficial and viable transportation routes. Our extensive knowledge of development projects and pending improvements on the Samoa Peninsula facilitated our ability to initiate discussions regarding alternative route alignments with neighboring property owners and resource agency staff. Our knowledge of federal, state, and local processes related to transportation planning and funding sources, and experience working on Caltrans Local Assistance projects, enabled us to make the necessary recommendations to include the preferred alternative in the Humboldt County Association of Governments Regional Transportation Plan. In addition, we worked with County staff to facilitate changes in their connecting road functional classifications.
The final comprehensive planning document provided to the Harbor District included a detailed overview of existing conditions in the project area and a strategy to implement the route sections for the preferred alternative, including funding solicitations, permitting, and construction.
The Project was funded with a $250,000 Federal Transportation Equity Act for the Twenty-First Century (TEA-21) grant.