The
San Francisco Chronicle has published an essential rundown of all the major transportation projects underway right now in the Bay Area, which all together will change how hundreds of thousands of people move around our region.
For all the Bay Area's faults--no pun intended--we are currently acting decisively to solve many of our most pressing transportation problems, and expanding and improving what already works. We are opening up critical freeway bottlenecks, constructing two new commuter railroads, electrifying an existing commuter railroad, extending our heavy rail system and one of our light rail systems, building out a regional carpool/express lane network, re-configuring one of our major regional bridges to expand capacity while also creating one of the region's first trans-bay bicycle routes, rebuilding and expanding a major downtown commuter hub, and constructing two bus rapid transit lines. When it comes to California transportation infrastructure investment, Los Angeles has gotten most of the attention for its admittedly laudable expansion of its light rail system, but the Bay Area is also investing billions of dollars to upgrade and modernize our regional transportation systems. And that's worth a bit of examination and (hopefully) some interesting conversation.
Here are some highlights of the Chronicle's excellent piece:
Caltrain Electrification
Caltrain is converting from diesel to electric engines, which will let trains accelerate and stop faster.
What’s going on: Caltrain is switching from diesel engines to electric, allowing trains to accelerate and stop faster. The change is expected to shorten trips and allow additional service. That’s key to Caltrain’s future, because it can’t add any more trains during the morning and evening commutes. The project involves stringing overhead wires and buying lightweight railcars that are individually powered, not pulled by a locomotive.
Open: Late 2020.
Cost: $1.5 billion.
Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit
Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit, or SMART, will carry passengers up to 43 miles between downtown San Rafael and a station near the Sonoma County Airport north of Santa Rosa.
What’s going on: Commuter rail is coming soon to Marin and Sonoma counties, and it’s nothing like Caltrain or BART. SMART will carry passengers up to 43 miles between downtown San Rafael and a station near the Sonoma County Airport north of Santa Rosa.
Lightweight railcars, independently powered by clean diesel, will be joined into two- to three-car trains on the refurbished tracks of the long-defunct Northwestern Pacific Railroad.
SMART plans to build extensions to the Larkspur ferry terminal, Healdsburg and Cloverdale, but doesn’t have the funding. President Obama’s proposed budget includes money for Larkspur but may not get through Congress. If it does, officials say, the extension from San Rafael could be completed within 18 months.
Open: Late 2016. Extensions to Larkspur and Cloverdale, unknown.
Cost: $460 million.
Van Ness bus rapid transit
Street trees are to be sacrificed as Muni develops bus rapid transit along Van Ness Avenue between Lombard and Mission streets.
What’s going on: Bus rapid transit, which uses stations with boarding platforms and exclusive lanes to make buses run like urban rail lines, is popular in Latin America and South America and is catching on slowly in the U.S.
Plans to build San Francisco’s first bus rapid transit line on Van Ness Avenue between Lombard and Mission streets have dragged on for more than a decade because of fights over stop locations, parking, traffic patterns and even street trees.
Open: Early 2019.
Cost: $163 million.
East Bay bus rapid transit
AC Transit, shown at a San Francisco stop, is building a rapid bus route from San Leandro to 20th Street in downtown Oakland.
What’s going on: AC Transit is building its own bus rapid transit route along a 9.5-mile route — mostly on busy International Boulevard — from San Leandro to 20th Street in downtown Oakland. Public opposition, especially in Berkeley, not only delayed the project but shortened it by more than seven miles. Foes objected to a plan to eliminate parking and a lane of traffic along Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley.
The line will take away 237 parking spaces and claim a lane of traffic in each direction, but is expected to cut travel times by 25 percent and draw 11,000 more riders a day.
Open: Late 2017.
Cost: $174 million.
Central Subway
Muni’s Central Subway will have stations near Moscone Center and Union Square before the end-of-the-line Chinatown station at Washington Street.
What’s going on: Muni is building a 1.7-mile Metro extension that will become part of the T-Third line. It extends northwest from Fourth and King streets, near the Caltrain terminal, above ground to a station at Fourth and Brannan streets before heading underground near Harrison Street. Then it becomes a subway, with stations near Moscone Center and Union Square before the end-of-the-line Chinatown station at Washington Street.
Open: 2019.
Cost: $1.6 billion.
I-580 express lanes
One westbound and two eastbound express lanes are coming to Interstate 580 through Pleasanton and Livermore.
What’s going on: Express lanes — carpool lanes that allow solo drivers to buy their way in at varying fees to keep traffic moving — have slowly made their way into the Bay Area. Regional transportation planners like the concept and plan eventually to convert every carpool lane to an express lane and close the gaps between them.
Next up are the 580 Express Lanes, a project that will bring two eastbound lanes and one westbound lane to Interstate 580 through Pleasanton and Livermore.
Open: Early 2016.
Cost : $55 million.
Richmond-San Rafael Bridge widening
On the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, planners are developing a third lane on the eastbound lower deck and a two-way bike path on the upper deck.
What ’s going on: When the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge opened in 1956, it carried three lanes of traffic on each deck. But a lane disappeared in 1977 when, in the middle of a drought, a pipeline was installed to carry water to Marin County. The pipe is long gone, but Caltrans kept a lane free for stalled cars and maintenance work.
Traffic on the span is up 13 percent over the past five years, and plans are in the works to open a third lane on the eastbound lower deck and a two-way bike path on the upper deck.
Open: October 2017.
Cost : $74 million.
BART to the South Bay
Construction continues on BART’s extension to Warm Springs, a Fremont neighborhood near the Tesla plant.
What’s going on: BART’s long-awaited journey to the South Bay is a story in three parts. Coming first is a 5.4-mile extension from the Fremont Station — the end of the line since the system opened — to Warm Springs, a Fremont neighborhood near the Tesla plant.
The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority is already well along on construction of a 10.2-mile extension that will carry BART south to the Berryessa neighborhood in northeast San Jose, via a Milpitas station near the Great Mall.
The authority doesn’t have the funding for the next phase after that, but it is working on plans to build new tracks south to a downtown San Jose subway, a stop at Diridon Station in San Jose and an end-of-the-line station in Santa Clara.
Open: Warm Springs, early 2016; Berryessa and Milpitas, late 2017; Santa Clara, to be determined.
Cost : Warm Springs, $767 million; Berryessa and Milpitas, $2.3 billion; Santa Clara, $3.4 to $4.7 billion, depending on the number of stations.
Transbay Transit Center
The first phase of San Francisco’s Transbay Transit Center, as envisioned by its designers, is set to open in 2017.
What’s going on: The drafty old Transbay Terminal is gone, and its replacement — a quarter-mile-long bus station and retail center with a park on the top and room for trains in the basement — is taking shape south of Mission Street between Beale and Second streets.
The terminal will have a bus deck with a direct ramp to the Bay Bridge, three levels of retail, offices and lobbies, and a train station that could accommodate Caltrain and high-speed rail.
The terminal is the first phase. A rail connection — Caltrain’s long-desired downtown extension — and subterranean train station is the second. No firm plans for funding or building the second phase have been established, but it’s one of the Bay Area’s priority transportation projects.
Open: Phase 1, 2017. Phase 2, unknown.
Cost: Phase 1, $2.1 billion. Phase 2, $3 billion.
Marin-Sonoma Narrows
Highway 101 is being widened between Novato and Petaluma, and it will remain striped for two lanes in each direction indefinitely until future phases north and south of the river are complete.
What’s going on: Highway 101 is the only continuous route through Marin and Sonoma counties. It’s also a congested mess, and the Narrows, where the highway shrinks to two lanes in each direction in and around Petaluma, is a big reason for the backup.
The Marin-Sonoma Narrows project will eventually expand the highway to three lanes each way, with one of those lanes a part-time carpool lane. But this is a seemingly endless project being built in phases as money becomes available.
The freeway is being widened between Novato and Petaluma, and a new bridge over the Petaluma River is under construction. When that’s done, the highway will remain striped for two lanes in each direction indefinitely until future phases north and south of the river are complete.
Open: Probably sometime after 2020.
Cost: $709.2 million.
Highway 4 widening, East Contra Costa BART extension
Highway 4 will be widened from two lanes to four in each direction, reaching from Loveridge Road in Pittsburg to Hillcrest Avenue in Antioch.
What’s going on: Traffic on Highway 4 is routinely backed up during the morning and evening commutes, often from Martinez to Antioch. Widening the freeway and adding a rail link are designed to help.
Widening Highway 4 from two lanes to four in each direction, including a carpool lane, started in 2011 and is being built in phases. It will reach from Loveridge Road in Pittsburg to Hillcrest Avenue in Antioch.
The rail link is known as the East County BART extension, though it will use a type of railcar new to the Bay Area.
Using lightweight, independently powered diesel cars, the line will extend 10 miles from the end-of-the-line Pittsburg/Bay Point station in the median of Highway 4 to Hillcrest Avenue in Antioch, with an intermediate station at Railroad Avenue in Pittsburg.
Open: Highway 4, summer 2016. BART, 2018.
Cost: Highway 4, $882 million. BART, $462 million.