ACEC Sierra Chapter leadership recently paid a visit to U.S. Congresswoman Doris Matsui, who represents California’s 5th District. Eddie Kho (Morton & Pitalo), Steve Greenfield (Cunningham Engineering), and Stephen Boll (Kleinfelder) met with the Congresswoman to discuss three things, infrastructure, infrastructure, and infrastructure!
District 5 currently covers Sacramento, yet Congresswoman Matsui noted that the most significant change with the redistricting, which will take effect with the upcoming 2012 election, is the addition of the City of West Sacramento. Her focus will be the importance of the Sacramento River as a regional amenity and the need for improving access between the two river cities. She acknowledged that West Sacramento has done a great job focusing their attention along the river with the River Walk and the Bridge District and she will be encouraging Sacramento to do the same. She is a strong supporter of two additional bridges over the river and believes that one of them would be ideally located connecting to Broadway on the Sacramento side.
Given that her district office at the Robert T. Matsui1 Federal Courthouse Building has an excellent view of the Sacramento Railyards project, our discussion then moved to the importance of urban infill projects. The infrastructure needs associated with such projects including flood protection and utility/roadway improvements will continue to be a challenge as our community density grows. Congresswoman Matsui was also very interested in local trends associated with sustainable developments and green energy projects. She wants Sacramento to become a Global Leader in Clean Energy Technology. As part of her commitment, she has introduced several bills to promote clean energy jobs and manufacturing in our region.
Congresswoman Doris Matsui has been a Champion of Infrastructure since she won a special election in 2005 for her late husband’s open seat. Many of the flood control projects in our region have been a direct result of her efforts and success in securing funding for the Sacramento Region. The message on the importance of Federal infrastructure funding for our region was clearly embraced by the congresswoman and she indicated that, although she has to pick her battles wisely due to federal earmark limitations, she will certainly bring that message to Washington in the coming years.
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