At the present time there are a number of regional plans ongoing in the Bay Area. Currently it takes years to get through the planning/environmental clearance process to project design, construction and start-up, consistent with available short-term, mid-term and long-term funding. There is an overriding need to streamline this process, in part by:

• Integrating the plans, at least to the extent of eliminating unnecessary duplication and overlap

• Taking a good honest look at each potentially viable alternative, while at the same time decisively and expeditiously discarding the ones that are clearly impractical
• Setting and following definitive schedules, right from the start
• In the name of accuracy and realism, insisting that cost estimates, schedules and budgets be prepared and monitored by experienced professionals

BATWG will have more to say on how the Region would benefit from expedited and more effective capital improvement programming and execution in subsequent issues of this newsletter.