Santa Clara County I-680 Corridor Study

HMH was engaged by VTA to develop the Santa Clara County I-680 Corridor Study as a strategic plan for the 10-mile segment of I-680 in Santa Clara County. The I-680 Corridor is an important north-south corridor serving as a major commute route between Alameda and Santa Clara counties, as well providing mobility from the South Bay area to the rest of the Bay Area and beyond. I-680 has ten major roadway crossings in the study corridor including major interchanges at SR 237/Calaveras Boulevard, Montague Expressway, Alum Rock Avenue, Capitol Expressway, and US 101/I-280.

The Santa Clara County I-680 Corridor Study identifies and evaluates a range of potential transportation improvements along the corridor that promote mobility and connectivity, enhance safety, support economic vitality and sustainability, and are sensitive to the environment and community values. The range of potential projects includes highway congestion management, multimodal accessibility, noise abatement, and bicycle/pedestrian connectivity improvements. The improvements identified in the corridor study will set the stage for inclusion in VTA’s Envision 2040 process, with future prospects for programming and implementation.

The stakeholders in this study included Caltrans, who administered Federal grant funds with critical deadlines, the County of Santa Clara, and the Cities of Milpitas and San Jose. In addition to liaison with agency staff, a public outreach process was held to receive input and feedback from the local communities. A public open house meeting was held to receive ideas on proposed improvements and to incorporate them into the study. HMH also worked with VTA to use a web-based “crowd-sourcing” interface to obtain public input on problem areas. This web-based outreach was a tremendous success generating over 500 responses on a broad range of highway, transit/local street, bike and pedestrian issues.