The September 25 Transportation Commission meeting was another big one. It included a mid-year project status report, a presentation from AC Transit regarding a signal priority upgrade project on Park Street, and an overview of the Pavement Management Program. The recording is here, and the agenda with links to reports is here.
Here are select highlights from the status report:
- Woodstock (the Estuary Water Shuttle) is doing well. Expect some schedule adjustments in November to better accommodate usage patterns. The Island Hopper service will also see some changes: one route (the circulator) will end soon, the other two routes (to water services) will continue through the end of the year.
- Final design concepts for the Fernside project will be presented to the Transportation Commission at its next meeting (in November), and to Council early next year.
- The Project Initiation Document (PID) for the Oakland-Alameda Estuary Bridge has been completed, and the City won a $480K grant for the next important study: a Waterways Study.
- In the coming months staff will coordinate with EBRPD and engage a consultant to come up with a plan to smooth Bay Farm’s wooden bridge surface, and hopefully spare us unnecessary dental work until the bridge is replaced 🦷
- There were multiple Cross Alameda Trail (CAT) updates:
- The hold-up on the work for the Cross Alameda Trail intersections between Main and Wilma Chan is because the wrong hardware was delivered. New ETA is October. We can look forward to protected bike phases for Main, Webster, and Wilma Chan intersections.
- CAT between Hibbard and Grand (the old Pennzoil site) is being built by the developer and will likely open in the spring, before the new housing is occupied.
- The section between Willow and Broadway is nearing completion.
- West Midway is set to open mid-October, but will close again because of work being done on the housing development there. There will be a series of street closures in the area related to that.
- Grand Street has been delayed. Segment A (aka Phase 1) between Shoreline and Otis is delayed to coordinate with work being done by AUSD at Wood School. Construction is set to begin in April or May. Segment B (aka Phase 2) between Otis and Encinal was supposed to begin construction next year, but may get pushed to early 2026 because “it’s a fairly complicated design.”
- Central Avenue (between Main and Sherman) construction contract was approved by Council earlier this month 🥳 and is likely to break ground by end of year, or very early next year.
- The contractor hired to work on improvements to the Lincoln and Walnut intersection has been slow to get going. Staff has issued a “notice to proceed” about a month ago, which will hopefully prod them to begin soon.
- The work to be done to improve pedestrian crossings at three intersections along Mecartney is out to bid.
- Caltrans is open to rethinking their Otis (SR-61) design between the bridge and Broadway. City staff and Caltrans are discussing options, and plan to co-host a public workshop where these options will be presented. This will come back to the Transportation Commission and Council likely early next year. Caltrans must obligate funds by summer. Related: SB 960 (Complete Streets) was just signed by Governor Newsom 🥳
- City Council will be discussing construction impacts around the Oakland Alameda Access Project this Tuesday. Related: we’ll be asking for funding for more water shuttle service as mitigation.
- The trail connectors into Jean Sweeney Open Space Park continue to be delayed as the soil plan submitted by Alameda Recreation and Parks wends its very slow way through the California Department of Toxic Substances Control. It’s apparently just a matter of time. An extension on the project grant may have to be requested as a result.
- There was no update on addressing the epidemic of parking (in bike lane) violations on Park and Webster Streets. However, in a separate item related to Park Street later that night, AC Transit presented their “Transit Signal Priority & Signal Optimization Project.” It’s notable that Park Street is a candidate for this funding thanks in large part to the new buffered bike lanes that make it a ‘complete street’ in the eyes of the funder. Another reason to keep building complete streets facilities — it makes us eligible for funding of great projects like this signal upgrade project! It’s surprising, though, that we qualify despite having bike lanes for only half the length of the project, and sharrows for the rest. Also that our paint-only bike lanes are so poorly enforced that no part of this street is really functioning as a complete street yet. Is the funder’s incentive functioning as intended?
Staff also mentioned that they’re in the process of hiring a Senior Transportation Coordinator (filling a hole in an already small department). Public Works made a few engineering hires, and now considers itself fully staffed. Commissioners noted how much the small team accomplishes, and also that we could accomplish a lot more with more resources.
The final presentation was on the Pavement Program. A few key takeaways:
- Our pavement quality is about average compared to neighboring cities.
- Things that damage pavement include: sun, water, heavy vehicles.
- Keeping things in good condition is very wise.
- We have a lot of work to do, and we’re short on funding; costs have gone up about 40% in 5 years. Unfortunately, the infrastructure bond measure did not get a supermajority vote from Council, so we’re in a bit of a bind: “We’re 50% short on what we need to maintain what we have.” Staff proposed that the Transportation Commission consider requesting more funding from Council before the upcoming capital budget process.
