Most of Lake Chabot Road Reopening Soon
Castro Valley’s end of Lake Chabot Road will be reopening soon, but the San Leandro side will remain closed for much longer, county officials said at a March 30 forum on flood control
Alameda County Public Works Agency Director Daniel Woldesenbet reported that Alameda County’s part of the road could be back in service as early as this Friday.
More than 100 people attended the forum at the San Leandro main library, called by District 3 county Supervisor Lena Tam.
“The question should be not when do we start repairs, it’s when do we finish,” Woldesenbet said in response to a written question from the audience.
Asked how much repairs to the road would cost, he said around $410,000, a figure relatively low for a major road repair.
The county portion runs from Fairmont Avenue in Castro Valley to near Astor Drive in San Leandro, by the Bay-O-Vista Swim & Tennis Club.
The city part of Lake Chabot Road, from Astor Drive to Estudillo Avenue, had more extensive damage, and the hillsides above the road need to be stabilized. According to San Leandro Mayor Juan Gonzales and city Principal Engineer Sheila Marquises, this will take months more.
Other repair work after the recent storms will also take considerably longer, people at the forum found out. That’s especially true of Redwood Road above the Redwood Canyon Golf Course, Woldesenbet said.
A Street and Eden Canyon Road have been reopened after repairs.
County Public Works is contracted to manage the Alameda County Flood Control & Water Conservation District, making Woldesenbet also the county’s chief flood control official.
The collapsed wall along the Estudillo Canal, running alongside Crosby Street through San Leandro’s Washington Manor neighborhood, will not be fixed quickly, Woldesenbet said. The problem there are that bids for the repair work ran millions of dollars more than expected, he said, and grants are being pursued to cover the extra cost.
Repairs are still being planned for the collapsed Haas Avenue footbridge near Bancroft Middle School in San Leandro, used by many residents and students at the school.
Repairing damage along San Leandro Creek is being left mostly up to individual property owners, with little help in most cases coming from the county or its flood-control agency, according to Woldesenbet.
Most public commenters at the forum called for quicker repairs to the Estudillo Canal, with a few lambasting the county for not having strengthened its walls long before the recent storms.
Woldesenbet said residents along the creeks could take some steps to reduce future damage to the creek’s banks and their property. He suggested removing unpermitted structures and moving any new or existing structures at least four feet back from the bank.
Trees within four feet of the bank should also be removed, he said. These could easily topple into the creek in future storms.
“And they’d take some of your property with them,” he said.