Report says Proposal to Cut Back Central Fwy. Faces Many Obstacles

by Carol Dimmick

A report released in December by the San Francisco Transportation Authority (SFTA) concluded that moving the Central Freeway back to Bryant Street would trigger major traffic challenges, delay the project by as much as six years, double its cost, and trigger legal and regulatory issues.

According to the 15-page report entitled "Strategic Analysis Report on the Implications of Relocating the Central Freeway Touchdown Ramps," which was requested by Supervisor Bevan Dufty, the financial implications alone are significant.

The report estimates that what is now expected to be a $90 million project could wind up costing as much as $193 million if the project is redesigned at this late stage.

Included in the $193 million estimate are costs for salaries for parking control officers, additional costs for planning and design, a new environmental review process, demolition, a temporary ramp and construction of a new local street network interface.

Other potential challenges cited in the report include legal complications that would arise from the sale of some of the 23 parcels of land transferred to the city from Caltrans for the right-of-way for the project.

Moving the ramps could also trigger another round of competing ballot measures, according to the report. This is because the project would no longer conform to Prop. I, which voters approved in 1999.

The report also states that moving the ramps back to Bryant Street would create significant traffic delays because the surface streets in that area would lack the capacity to move the heavy traffic load the freeway is expected to carry.

To make the Bryant Street scenario viable, a 10-lane expressway would have to be built to accommodate the more than 4,000 vehicles per hour in each direction that would flood the surface streets immediately west of the new touch-down area.

One possible benefit to moving the ramps south of Market Street cited in the report would be to increase property values in the immediate area. The report also says that moving the ramps back would open up the possibility of a comprehensive planning approach to developing the area.

While building more housing would be a benefit, Jose Moscovich, executive director of the SFTA, says it would raise practical issues that would conflict with rebuilding the freeway.

"Zoning would have to be analyzed. There would be pressure to build housing and the impacts would have to be analyzed. You would have to start with land use and that would take years of analysis," he said.

Dufty, whose district includes the project, says he requested the analysis in response to concerns raised by his constituents.

"Neighbors had concerns that the openness created by removing this freeway will be blighted by this structure," he said.

The Central Freeway, which connects the Bay Bridge with the northeast area of the city, was the subject of three ballot measures in the late 1990s after the Loma Prieta earthquake critically damaged the structure in 1989.

After voters approved Prop. I in 1999, work began to retrofit the structure from the Interstate 80/Highway 101 juncture to Mission Street and in 2003 on the new touch-down ramps where Octavia Boulevard crosses Market Street. Work on the freeway is currently scheduled for completion in mid-2005.

As part of the planning process, for four years city planners met with residents in Hayes Valley to redesign the neighborhood affected by the ramps. The result was the Octavia Boulevard Project, a comprehensive planning approach for redeveloping the neighborhood that includes pedestrian-friendly walkways and dense housing development along transit corridors.

The removal of elevated structures over Market and Valencia streets brought a feeling of openness to the area and prompted neighborhood groups to request relocating the ramps at Bryant Street.

Lynn Valente, who lives close to where the ramps are scheduled to touch down at Market Street, now wants the project moved back to Bryant Street.

"Once the ramp came down people didn't want it to come back. There are seeing sky and air they have not seen since 1958," she said.

Valente believes the intersection at Market Street, where the ramps touch down under the current plan, is dangerous and that traffic can be dispersed in a more effective way.

McGoldrick Says Bryant Street Ramp Bad for Richmond

To Richmond and Sunset residents, the Central Freeway has long been considered a key traffic distribution link to the outlying districts. Any attempt to move the ramps back would likely meet with opposition from residents in these district.

Since 1989, Richmond and Sunset voters have consistently voted for ballot measures that would have rebuilt the damaged ramp at Fell and Oak streets and it is unlikely they would agree to moving the ramps back to Bryant Street.

The SF Transportation Authority is tentatively slated to review the report at its Jan. 13 meeting. Construction to replace a portion of the Central Freeway up to Market Street is slated to begin early this year.

Supervisor Jake McGoldrick, who represents the Richmond District, does not think the plan has a good chance of being enacted.

According to McGoldrick, Bryant Street ramps would be bad for the Richmond and Sunset districts.

"The facts are very condemning. Moving the ramps back to Bryant Street would create traffic patterns that would have a negative impact on the Richmond," McGoldrick said. "The horse is out of the barn on this one."