State Route 17 Resiliency and Adaptation Plan

ongoing

As climate related events become more frequent and intense, disruptions to travel on State Route 17 (SR 17) in Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties have increased. The corridor has seen a rise in resilience challenges and emergency evacuation and access needs. Caltrans is developing a SR 17 Resiliency and Adaptation Plan (Plan) from SR 1 in Santa Cruz to the I-280/I-880 interchange in San Jose. Building on previous efforts, the SR 17 Plan seeks to: Advance goals of the California Transportation Plan 2050 and Climate Action Plan for Transportation Infrastructure Collaborate with the public to establish a collective vision Prioritize project opportunities that align with assessing physical climate risk and safety improvements that reduce fatalities and severe injuries One of the key objectives of the Plan is to collaboratively develop a resiliency-based corridor vision, goals, objectives, and associated performance measures. These performance measures will be used to evaluate adaptation options for SR 17 to ensure that it can withstand future climate change impacts. Additionally, the Plan aims to define and document corridor resilience challenges and emergency evacuation/access needs as well as propose, evaluate, and prioritize adaptation strategies that help advance corridor goals. The Plan will also function as a Comprehensive Multimodal Corridor Plan (CMCP) for SR 17, with goals and objectives in alignment with the California Transportation Commission’s (CTC) CMCP guidelines. A CMCP is a long-range system plan developed in collaboration with State, regional, local governments, and communities to serve growing transportation system needs along a corridor. A CMCP identifies current and future challenges such as congestion and climate change, while evaluating equitable opportunities for bicycle, pedestrian, transit, freight, and rail improvements to support multimodal accessibility.