SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA: Transit/Transportation News

[fflint]

No, it was the YPT party at Infusion Lounge. Ed Reiskin was one of the other panelists--very cool to get to meet him and Crunican.

[M II A II R II K]

Ed Lee talks of tearing down end of I-280

Read More: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/matier...80-4209883.php

Mayor Ed Lee is floating the idea of tearing down the stub end of Interstate 280 in San Francisco in hopes of creating a new neighborhood and speeding up the arrival of high-speed rail service downtown.

- The idea, laid out by the mayor's chief transit planner, Gillian Gillett, in a memo to the regional Metropolitan Transportation Commission, would be to knock down I-280 before 16th Street - eliminating the ramps both at Sixth and Brannan streets and at Fourth and King streets. It would be replaced by a street-level boulevard akin to those built after the Embarcadero and Central freeways were knocked down. The plan also calls for clearing out the adjacent rail yard to make way for a high-speed rail line.

- "The mayor is a big proponent of high-speed rail," said Lee's spokeswoman, Christine Falvey. "And the mayor is interested in looking at that concept if it can bring high-speed rail to San Francisco faster, better and cheaper." She added, "It could be a big boon to the city if we develop a neighborhood in the process." But Falvey cautioned there are years of work ahead. And some transit insiders worry that a potential fight over a freeway pull-down could actually slow the high-speed rail planning process. "Nobody has said 'no' to the idea," said Randy Rentschler, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. But it will take lots of talk before anything happens, he said.

.....

[mthd]

an interesting idea - but the article is incredibly vague as to how the demolition of 280 north of 16th would make high speed rail cheaper or sooner.

assuming the cars using the 6th street and king street offramps used the new boulevard, it probably wouldn't make much difference to traffic. if all those cars stayed on 101, it would be a disaster. i assume eventually that would balance itself out as people learned better - although that hasn't really happened with 101 and 280 themselves over the years.

the portion north of 16 is in red, the piece between 16th and the previous exit at 18th is orange.

[TWAK]

I love freeways just as much as the next guy, but is it really needed beyond 20th street to service some of the industrial business on the shoreline? Maybe integrate it a bit better with 101 near Cesar Chavez since it's running through a bunch of warehouses.

[Nexis4Jersey]

Seems like a ticking timebomb if you factor in a major earthquake striking the area.... I could see it collapsing....

[fflint]

Demolishing the freeway would eliminate one of the most difficult engineering problems facing HSR in San Francisco. Currently, Caltrain runs under the elevated freeway and crosses 16th (and Berry) at grade. Electrified HSR cannot cross streets at grade, so it will need to go underground right where today's freeway runs at 16th Street. The configuration of the pylons right now makes that nearly impossible--but we cannot just cut off 16th Street and the access it provides to Mission Bay.


http://sf.streetsblog.org/2011/05/19...moves-forward/

[Gordo]

Green Caltrain has all of the slides discussed at the meeting:

http://www.greencaltrain.com/2013/01...wap-railyards/

The most interesting part is actually about potential new routes for the last mile to downtown, two of which would eliminate the disastrous tight curves of the currently planned tunnels.

And yeah, all for the tearing down of 280 back to at least 16th, even disregarding any benefit to Caltrain/HSR.

[mthd]

Originally Posted by Nexis4Jersey

Seems like a ticking timebomb if you factor in a major earthquake striking the area.... I could see it collapsing....

it's actually a fairly recent structure. much of it since loma prieta. it's designed to withstand a major earthquake.

[M II A II R II K]

Seattle did a number of case studies of previous highway removals and their effects on traffic:

PDF: http://www.cityofseattle.net/transpo...%20removal.pdf

[northbay]

San Francisco has already removed freeways, with success. I say do it, especially if it helps CHSR.

[fflint]

^Agreed!

[quashlo]

BART capacity planning presentation (January 2013):
http://bart.gov/docs/capacity.pdf

For escalator queuing, faster (and more reliable, for that matter) escalators seems most realistic. They should also be able to easily add escalators at Montgomery by taking out the stairwells in the middle of the escalator shafts. For Embarcadero (and Montgomery, if needed), I don't see why they can't simply coordinate with Muni Metro, which has plenty of unused platform space that could be used for new escalators (whether up to concourse level or up to Muni platform level) and for platform queuing... The "saddlebag" platforms are overkill.

PM platform congestion is only a problem because everyone goes straight down to platform level and waits there, even if their train is 10-15 minutes away. Some simple departure boards and public announcements at concourse level should fix.

[ardecila]

You're right, cheap short-term moves can solve the problem for now, but eventually the Spanish Solution platforms will be needed as ridership grows. On the other hand, $615 million might be better spent to dig a whole new subway line for relief. I could imagine a "downtown relief line" on the Muni system looping from Embarcadero to Civic Center down Howard or Folsom, coupled with a new fare policy that allows free transfers. This would also provide a quick transfer between Market Street and the Transbay Terminal.

[OhioGuy]

New Bay Bridge is on schedule to open later this year (includes video news story)

The new Bay Bridge is set to open later this year, and so far the project is right on schedule to open around Labor Day weekend.

The new Bay Bridge is to the old bridge as the space shuttle is to a horse and buggy. Along with seismic safety features innovated just for this bridge, there are aerodynamic features underneath the bridge designed to prevent dangerous vibrations in high winds.

Caltrans renderings show the wind vortex shutters that won't affect how cars feel the wind on the deck, but will keep the bridge structure from feeling the wind.

"The Bay can be very windy, and you do have a lot of cross currents," Caltrans spokesperson Bob Haus said. "Now what we did have was the advantage of modern design technology, and there are quite a few steps that we brought in in the design of this bridge taking the wind into account."

[Grantenfuego]

Great that there will be a bike path, but kinda useless unless they install one on the western span as well. No one's journey ever ends on Treasure Island, unless you're going to a music festival, or you're one of the 2500 that actually live there.

I hope there are plans in the future to make biking from SF to Oakland possible.

[1977]

Some more info about the new control tower at SFO....and a rather large rendering (click link):

San Francisco, California – A world-class tower for a world-class airport is set to rise at San Francisco International Airport (SFO). Known as the “gateway to the Pacific,” SFO serves approximately 50 million domestic and international passengers annually.

Committed to maintaining a competitive and iconic facility, the Replacement Airport Traffic Control Tower and Integrated Facilities have combined to create a new Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Airport Traffic Control Tower. The tower includes an Integrated Facility base building for offices, support, and other airport functions. Hensel Phelps Construction Co. and Fentress Architects serve as the design-build team for this iconic tower that represents the San Francisco spirit by incorporating the cosmopolitan character and sophistication of the City by the Bay.

Landmark Control Tower | The new 220-foot-tall control tower replaces the current air traffic control tower that no longer meets seismic standards. The tower is located between Terminals 1 and 2 and features a 650-square-foot controller work area. The tower sits atop a three-story, 44,000-square-foot base building that will house administrative offices, a backup generator, computer equipment, and secured corridors through which passengers can transit between terminals. Given the prominent location and high visibility, the tower will be the first image arriving passengers see, whether by land or air.

Source and article: http://news.theregistrysf.com/new-ce...ional-airport/

[NYC2ATX]

I recommend you all try to catch the first episode of the new Science Channel series "Strip the City" ...it was all about the hidden infrastructure in San Francisco designed to protect it from earthquakes, including particularly interesting segments about the technology of the new Bay Bridge and the upcoming Central Subway. Worth a watch for sure

[ltsmotorsport]

I tried to watch it, but it just seemed to be presented in such a dumbed-down way that I couldn't make it past 20 minutes. Would have liked to see the Central Subway segment though.

[fflint]

Came across a great pic of a southbound Caltrain local:


by wsor_3807 on flickr

[ltsmotorsport]

So as the the 280 demo project, I love the idea as well. Seems like they could just take it out all the way to 18th, build a new SB on-ramp/NB off-ramp from the main ROW and be done with it. Then as for Caltrain's concern about losing their yard space, there seems to be plenty of room for new storage tracks just south of the Bayshore stop between the tracks and Tunnel Ave.

Of course I have no idea of any underlying complexities of these ideas, but they seem feasible on first glance.