The Tamalpais Hotel in Strawberry, often known when the ‘O’ light is out of commission…
Marin County supervisors have approved a $2.2 million allocation to bury utility lines along the Redwood Highway Frontage Road in Strawberry.
The project has an overall cost of $4.5 million for a construction phase and a utility phase. The $2.2 million is for the construction phase.
The project will put the lines underground along a 0.4-mile corridor between Belvedere Drive and Seminary Drive.
“What’s going to be done is the second part of an undergrounding project that started years and years ago in front of the Strawberry Village shopping center,” said Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters. “The second part that is now going to be worked on is with PG&E because there’s a deadline. We’re going to lose our Rule 20A funding if we don’t get this going.”
Rule 20a is a California Public Utilities Commission regulation that requires Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to allot a certain amount of work credits each year for communities to place overhead electrical lines below ground.
Marin supervisors approved the additional spending on July 15.
The project involves building underground conduits for use by PG&E, AT&T and Comcast. It includes drilling horizontally under Highway 101, a staff report said.
The project budget includes a 25% contingency because unexpected objects and obstacles might lie below Highway 101.
“Unknown subsurface conditions that may be encountered during the trench excavation work on the Project include soft bay mud soils, potential for hard rock outcrops, variable depths and locations of existing underground sewer and water utilities, variable groundwater conditions, and the possibility of encountering buried manmade objects,” the report said.
Construction will begin in early August and run though late October. Street parking will be limited during the project.
The undergrounding will be followed by another phase that involves creating bike lanes, Moulton-Peters said.
“There’s been some initial work by the county looking at a bike path,” she said. “It will potentially open up right of way space that could be used as a bike lane. That could be helpful for adults and older students who want to ride from Strawberry over the pedestrian overcrossing into Mill Valley to go to the middle school.”
Planning for that phase of the project will include outreach to frontage road businesses to discuss parking needs, Moulton-Peters said.
Chief Chris Tubbs of the Southern Marin Fire Protection District praised the project.
“I strongly support the undergrounding of power lines as a critical step toward preventing wildfires and protecting our community,” Tubbs said. “Reducing ignition sources and keeping evacuation routes clear directly enhances both public safety and firefighter effectiveness during emergencies.”
