SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA: Transit/Transportation News

[northbay]

SMART update:

"Station finish work is under construction is underway in Marin and Sonoma Counties. Crews started in San Rafael late last year and are moving northward. First, concrete is poured to create the foundation and walls, the station finishes (which include the shelter, trash cans, Clipper Card vending machines and tag on/tag off stations) will be added closer to the start of passenger service."






https://www.facebook.com/sonomamarintrain/

[northbay]

Another round of BART's station modernization plans to move forward
Dianne de Guzman Updated 8:48 pm, Wednesday, February 24, 2016


El Cerrito del Norte — concept art
A view of the station shows a glass facade and updated pedestrian space beneath the tracks, with the parking garage in the background.


El Cerrito del Norte — concept art
A closer view of the station's exterior.


El Cerrito del Norte — concept art
LED fixtures outside the station with seating areas and new bus shelters.


El Cerrito del Norte — concept art
The bike and pedestrian path along the Ohlone Greenway.


El Cerrito del Norte — Ohlone Greenway improvement concept art
BART and El Cerrito are partnering to improve the area that links both El Cerrito del Norte and El Cerrito Plaza stations.


19th Street/Oakland — concept art
Accent LED light fixtures are seen between the concourse and upper platform areas.


19th Street/Oakland — concept art
The proposed station upgrades would incorporate some retail spaces, new elevators and upgraded station booths among other things.


19th Street/Oakland — concept art
Art will also be possibly implemented into the station in more locations and signs to improve wayfinding at the station.


Market Street BART/Muni entrance canopy — concept art
A proposed canopy design meant to shelter the stations from the weather.


Powell Street — concept art
Halladie Plaza lobby.


Powell Street — concept art
Secondary lobby, with a designated area for art.


Balboa Park — concept art


While it may be hard to believe for many BART riders, the transportation system we all love and hate is about to start station upgrades at certain locations.

...

Station improvements will be seen at El Cerrito del Norte, 19th Street/Oakland, Powell Street and the Balboa Park stations in the next two years, BART confirmed. This is the second round of improvements being made as part of BART's Station Modernization Program.

Along with station improvements, BART is also working with the city of San Francisco to upgrade entrances and escalators along Market Street. Plans are in place to add canopies over street-level entrances and improve "escalator durability" — which will hopefully mean that they will work, consistently.

Beyond the approved upgrades to the system, the Planning and Development Department took things a step further, making concept plans for improvements beyond those that are immediately scheduled...

As for now, some of the concept artwork is still an (unfunded) twinkle in the eye of BART's planning department. For the currently scheduled upgrades, however, BART confirmed a number of the construction timelines and improvements that will be happening at each station below:

El Cerrito Del Norte — construction estimated for fall 2016, ending fall 2018

Expand paid area, with upgrades to existing paid area
Two new elevators
New public bathrooms
New seating areas and new wind screens
New ceiling, lighting and flooring in the paid areas
Art mural additions in two locations
Upgrade station lighting
Improve signs both inside and outside of the station
Relocate bike racks/bike lockers

19th Street/Oakland — construction estimated for fall 2016, ending fall 2018

Replace fare barriers
Replace light fixtures with LED lights
Painting
Restore flooring
Art

San Francisco Market Street canopies — construction estimated for winter 2016, complete summer 2017

San Francisco Market Street escalators — construction estimated for winter 2016, complete summer 2019

Powell Street — construction estimated for spring 2016, ending Spring 2017

New ceiling and new LED lighting systems

Powell Street — construction estimated for spring 2017, ending spring 2019

Relocate ticket vending machines and break room
New glass wall
New art
Expanded paid area in the secondary lobby area

Balboa Park — construction estimated for winter 2016, ending winter 2018

New accessible pathways
New headhouse
New accessible Muni platform
Replace fare barriers
Pigeon mitigation

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/B...ve-6835277.php

[CharlesCO]

Cool stuff. Sadly I moved away from the Bay Area and haven't been back in a while — does Powell still look like a war zone, or did they finally put a real ceiling back on it?

[Busy Bee]

I dig the Powell canopy.

[fflint]

Canopies over downtown subway entrances are long-overdue. These designs also allow for keeping the homeless from sleeping on the stairwells and escalators. There is actually a prototype canopy up at 19th Street Station in Oakland, and so far it seems to be keeping the mechanical equipment dry and free of overnight piss and garbage.

[viewguysf]

Originally Posted by CharlesCO

Cool stuff. Sadly I moved away from the Bay Area and haven't been back in a while — does Powell still look like a war zone, or did they finally put a real ceiling back on it?

It looks just like you last saw it.

[fflint]

BART February ridership sets monthly record

Bolstered by Super Bowl crowds, BART set a record in February for average monthly weekday ridership, a BART spokeswoman said Wednesday.
The average for last month was 446,650, compared with a record of 446,008 set in October 2015, spokeswoman Alicia Trost said.
....
Three of the top ten busiest days, including the third busiest day, were when San Francisco was hosting Super Bowl City.
...

[fflint]

SFMTA to study Central Subway extension to Fisherman’s Wharf

Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez
San Francisco Examiner
March 11, 2016

San Francisco’s newest — and still under construction — subway may soon see an extension from Chinatown to Fisherman’s Wharf.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency recently allocated $1.2 million in its budget to study extending the T-Third Central Subway from its terminus in North Beach all the way to Fisherman’s Wharf.

Some are calling the study a major first step by the SFMTA that shows a clear sign of moving toward a new subway than ever before.

The San Francisco County Transportation Authority did conduct a feasibility study with the SFMTA, said SFMTA Director of Transportation Ed Reiskin.

“[The feasibility study] would go a level deeper,” he told the San Francisco Examiner. “This would do more community work and more technical work, to tee it up into preliminary engineering into environmental impact and analysis.”

Reiskin affirmed his support of the project while clarifying that nothing is set in stone.

“It doesn’t guarantee we get a subway built,” he said. “I sure hope they will see this project come to fruition. If you look at the very long term in The City, it makes all the sense of the world.”
....

[destroycreate]

Originally Posted by fflint

SFMTA to study Central Subway extension to Fisherman’s Wharf

Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez
San Francisco Examiner
March 11, 2016

San Francisco’s newest — and still under construction — subway may soon see an extension from Chinatown to Fisherman’s Wharf.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency recently allocated $1.2 million in its budget to study extending the T-Third Central Subway from its terminus in North Beach all the way to Fisherman’s Wharf.

Some are calling the study a major first step by the SFMTA that shows a clear sign of moving toward a new subway than ever before.

The San Francisco County Transportation Authority did conduct a feasibility study with the SFMTA, said SFMTA Director of Transportation Ed Reiskin.

“[The feasibility study] would go a level deeper,” he told the San Francisco Examiner. “This would do more community work and more technical work, to tee it up into preliminary engineering into environmental impact and analysis.”

Reiskin affirmed his support of the project while clarifying that nothing is set in stone.

“It doesn’t guarantee we get a subway built,” he said. “I sure hope they will see this project come to fruition. If you look at the very long term in The City, it makes all the sense of the world.”
....

God, this would make so much more sense versus the current boondoggle it currently is. $1.578 billion for the 1.7 mile light rail line is so ridiculous.

[mousquet]

Originally Posted by destroycreate

$1.578 billion for the 1.7 mile light rail line is so ridiculous.

Yeah, this is absolutely insane. The same would cost 10 times less in Europe. I assume the only reason for this outrageous fact is that the market in NA is not competitive enough to motivate lower cost developments in that matter yet. The more you'll get, the less expensive it should eventually be.

[fflint]

Originally Posted by mousquet

Yeah, this is absolutely insane. The same would cost 10 times less in Europe. I assume the only reason for this outrageous fact is that the market in NA is not competitive enough to motivate lower cost developments in that matter yet. The more you'll get, the less expensive it should eventually be.

The Central Subway is so expensive because it must be tunneled so deeply under Market Street at 4th/Stockton:

Ground minus one level: existing Muni Metro/BART concourse
Ground minus two levels: existing Muni Metro platforms and tracks
Ground minus three levels: existing BART platforms and tracks

Ground minus four levels: new Central Subway tracks

[Gordo]

^It's expensive because of the depth of the tunnel? Haven't heard that one before. The much deeper tunnels bored in Seattle and Portland must have been waaaay more expensive...oh wait.

http://www.centralsubwaysf.com/document-library

The stations make up more than 60% of the cost. Both the Chinatown and Union Square stations are clocking in at ~$300m each (!?) I'm expecting solid gold chandeliers and ivory benches.

[fflint]

Originally Posted by Gordo

^It's expensive because of the depth of the tunnel? Haven't heard that one before. The much deeper tunnels bored in Seattle and Portland must have been waaaay more expensive...oh wait.

http://www.centralsubwaysf.com/document-library

The stations make up more than 60% of the cost. Both the Chinatown and Union Square stations are clocking in at ~$300m each (!?) I'm expecting solid gold chandeliers and ivory benches.

It is obviously true a cut-and-cover trench just beneath the surface would have been immensely cheaper than the deep bore tunnels we are getting. Alas, because of the aforementioned existing underground infrastructure at Market Street, cut-and-cover was not an option for the Central Subway.

[Gordo]

Originally Posted by fflint

It is obviously true a cut-and-cover trench just beneath the surface would have been immensely cheaper than the deep bore tunnels we are getting. Alas, because of the aforementioned existing underground infrastructure at Market Street, cut-and-cover was not an option for the Central Subway.

Sure, but that doesn't come close to explaining the exorbitant cost of this thing. No one is expecting cut and cover to be used in a modern US city, since surface disruption during construction is just no longer tolerated. That still doesn't explain the cost, and certainly depth of the tunnel is not a reason for the cost. Seattle's recently completed tunneling under Capitol Hill was far deeper and far less expensive. Deep boring is very common in the developed world these days, but $300 million light rail stations (that fit only 2-4 cars!) are not.

[BrownTown]

Originally Posted by fflint

It is obviously true a cut-and-cover trench just beneath the surface would have been immensely cheaper than the deep bore tunnels we are getting. Alas, because of the aforementioned existing underground infrastructure at Market Street, cut-and-cover was not an option for the Central Subway.

That's not true at all. Most of the cost of a subway is the cost of the stations, not the tunnels. Deep tunneling isn't really that much more expensive. So long as the stations aren't mined there isn't any good reason for the cost to be so high.

[fflint]

Originally Posted by BrownTown

Deep tunneling isn't really that much more expensive.

So we agree it is more expensive.

[electricron]

I'll agree it's the stations that are more expensive the deeper the station lies.
Longer stairways, longer and therefore more escalators, and taller elevators all add to the costs. The more portals and more mezzanines added also add to the station costs. All of these vertical access are usually dug using mining techniques, not with a huge tunnel boring machine.

I'm not familiar with the design of the stations, but adding just one vertical access to the two vertical basic paths increases costs 50%, doubling vertical access can double the basic station price.

[Busy Bee]

Subterranean construction past a certain depth is to cost what highrise construction is to cost past a certain height. Similar challenges but on opposite ends of the spectrum if you will.

[Gordo]

Originally Posted by fflint

So we agree it is more expensive.

You were originally responding to why it was so much more expensive than Europe - no one said anything about cut and cover until you brought it up. There are no examples in Europe of a mined tunnel this deep being as expensive or more expensive, but there are numerous examples of mined tunnels as deep or deeper than this that are less expensive. And likewise, there are cheaper examples in the US from this exact year.

Why the talk of cut and cover?

[CharlesCO]

The first new BART car to be built in decades is now making its way to the Bay Area.

• Video Link

http://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2016/news20160314